Starvix's Metal, We Toddlerized Ourselves
by Project Starvix
Summary: Metal Sonic, Robo Knuckles, and Shadow Android are back! This time, after a series of wacky events, the trio turn the strangely named Eggafier Ray on themselves by accident. So what happens to robots who get hit by the baby beam? They turn into organic toddlers! But, unlike other victims of this dastardly device, the trio retains all their memories, for all the good that does them!
1. Chapter 1

Tloj: Alright, final story. Enjoy.

* * *

Story Notes:

Please note that Robo Knuckles and Metal Sonic are described from pictures I found on the net. But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find a Shadow Android picture. The best I got was a description of 'different colored Shadow Androids,' and a list of colors. So I went with the orange one, because orange is one of my favorite colors. I assume that he looks exactly like Shadow but with orange stripes instead of red. Anyway, he does now. RR, please.

Author's Chapter Notes:

My disclaimer for the story: I do not own anything Sonic related. I do own Zombie, Maria, and the organic alter-versions of Metal Sonic, Robo Knuckles, and Shadow Android.

* * *

I cannot believe this!

After the baby minions fiasco, I had thought things would go back to normal. I was wrong. For some reason, Eggman thought it was our fault that he couldn't control toddlers. For the record, it wasn't our fault, it was his—but try telling him that and he'd disassemble you.

So, as punishment for 'failing' him, we had to clear out his lab of all his non-working junk so he could fill it with even more non-working junk. Most of his punishments included us doing menial labor that he didn't want to do himself.

It wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't insisted that Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android help out. I would be DONE by now if not for Tweedledee and Tweedledum shoving their noses in every bloody corner and trying to 'rescue' broken items from the incinerator. Stuff that NOBODY could use.

"Look at this!" Robo Knuckles had two little piles of junk labeled, 'keep' and 'dump.' The Keep pile was the size of the state of Manhattan, and the Dump pile had a small object that appeared to be half a rusty bolt as its sole inhabitant.

"Do you know what this IS!?" The insistent robot shoved the item in his hand in Shadow Android's face. Shadow Android yanked back and his ion cannon activated automatically.

"Gah!" he yelled. "Get that dead mouse out of my face!"

"It's not a dead mouse," Robo Knuckles chided him. "It's Kevin. Say hi, Kevin."

Kevin just laid there like a dead mouse. Robo Knuckles poked his belly and shrugged, tossing him on the Keep pile like a sack of potatoes.

Kevin didn't mind; he was too dead to notice the harsh treatment.

"This is degrading," Shadow Android muttered. "Why are we always the ones who get stuck on garbage duty?"

"I hear this is why Omega went rogue," Robo Knuckles whispered conspiratorially.

I cocked my head. "That information is incorrect. You made that up."

"Did I, Metal Sonic? Did I?"

Shadow Android scratched his head, his programming telling him to emulate the gesture used by organics to portray confusion. "You told me Omega went rogue because the microwave blew up and he couldn't eat his hot coco with marshmallows," he said.

"Did I, Shadow Android? Did I?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Besides, we robots do not eat or drink. There was no reason for Omega to get upset about hot coco," I added.

"Well, maybe he was upset because he couldn't drink it," Robo Knuckles suggested.

"This whole conversation is stupid!" Shadow Android snapped, throwing the object he had been holding. It bounced off of Robo Knuckles' Keep pile, knocking it over. It was positioned so that several of the items went into the incinerator, chief of which was Kevin.

"NO!" Robo Knuckles rushed to the blazing inferno, but it was too late. He dropped to his knees and sobbed, "Why does things like this keep happening to me!?"

Shadow Android sighed. "Get up, you Drama Robot."

Robo Knuckles whirled and pointed an accusatory finger at Shadow Android. "You did this!" he yelled. "You KILLED Kevin! You monster!"

"The rat was already dead, you moron!" Shadow Android yelled back.

"He's not a rat, he's a mouse!" Turning back to the incinerator, Robo Knuckles sniffled and said, "Fare thee well, Kevin. Thy memory shalt live on forever inside my memory banks. Good bye," his vocal chip seeming to break, he whispered, "Old friend." Then he started sobbing.

"Oh, please," Shadow Android muttered.

You see, this is why I hate working with those two.

I sighed and started to pick up more trash, when I noticed a large, metal object standing off to the side.

"Look," I said. "It's Eggman's original baby machine."

Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android stopped what they were doing (which was nothing) and came over to me.

"Was it always that big?" Robo Knuckles wondered.

"How are we going to get that into the incinerator?" Shadow Android mused.

"The sooner we get to work, the sooner we'll get it over with," I said. "Come on, and let's all lift it."

Shadow Android and I each grabbed a side and started trying to pick it up. Robo Knuckles, the ingrate, climbed inside.

"I'll steer," he said.

"Get off of that!" Shadow Android snapped. "You can't steer, there aren't any wheels!"

"Then I'll sit here and pretend to steer," Robo Knuckles suggested.

"If you don't get off of there THIS INSTANT I'm going to wring your scrawny little hard drive!" Shadow Android snapped, lunging at Robo Knuckles.

Robo Knuckles yelped and jumped back, hitting a big red button as he fell out of the machine and hit the ground. In an instant, Shadow Android was on him.

I sighed and started to pull them apart, when the machine whirred to life. None of us could move out of the way in time as a pinkish/white glow surrounded us.

I feel like I'm going to throw up. The blast must have temporarily caused me to go off-line, and I'm just now rebooting. I sat up and moaned slightly.

"Owies. Dat is hurtin'." My eyes widened. Is that…my voice? Something must be wrong with my vocal transistors…

All of a sudden I noticed my hands. They weren't hard metal anymore. They were soft…and fuzzy…and…organic? What the daisy is going on here!?

I stumbled to my feet and noticed two organic toddlers who were just starting to wake up.

The one to the left looked a good deal like Knuckles had when we infantized him, only he had a white mark that looked like an arrow running down his forehead. He had five deadlocks that were styled sticking single-file down the back of his head, each with a white streak in the middle of each. He had no gloves, and the areas on Knuckles that were a pale skin color was a silver grey on this toddler. He had green eyes.

Next to him was a nearly exact copy of toddler Shadow, except instead of red highlights he had orange ones. Also, his bracelets were thinner and more copperish than Shadow's.

The Shadow look-alike looked at me and his crimson red eyes widened. "Who is you?" he asked in an adorable voice. "Where Mekal Soni?"

Mekal…does he mean Metal Sonic? I'm Metal Sonic! Who is this kid? Where is Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android?

I was about to sound the alarm when I caught my reflection in Eggman's machine. I looked stunningly like Sonic, only my quills were stylized into a star form, exactly five quills. Each quill had a silvery white streak through the middle. Instead of a peach colored center, I had a yellow circle on my chest. My eyes were red and like the red echidna I had a silver mouth and hands.

"I is o-gani baby!" I shrieked in my high pitched voice. Boy, is that voice ever getting on my nerves. Still, it has to do for now. I pointed at the Shadow doppelganger and cried, "You Shadoo Anwoid?"

Shadow Android—I'm certain that's who he is—cocked his head to the side. "How knowie nameys?"

By now, Robo Knuckles had come to his senses and was looking us both over. He clapped his hands and squealed, "Babies! I keepies all!" then he rushed over and tried to give both of us a super hug at the same time.

Shadow Android's eyes widened as he realized what had happened. "We babies!" he gasped. "Onwy Wobo Nukies dat stupi."

Robo Knuckles blinked, then he looked down at himself. He gave a high pitched squeak and jumped three feet off the ground. Then he grinned. "Me am cutsie. I wuvvies me." And he gave himself a hug.

Yeah, that's Robo Knuckles.

"Now what's we goin' doies?" Shadow Android asked. Both of the former machines turned and looked directly at me.

"Well?" Robo Knuckles prompted.

I opened my mouth—yeah, I got a mouth, how about that—but before I could answer a SWATbot entered the room and his sensors found us.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" It called, grabbing the three of us and dragging us outside, where he threw us less-than-gently on the rather hard ground.

"Owchies!" Robo Knuckles cried as the SWATbot went back into the base and shut the door.

"How bouties dat," Shadow Android said, rubbing his bottom, where he'd landed. "We getties kick out our own housey!"

"Dat no fair!" Robo Knuckles said, stomping up to the doorway and kicking it. Then he yelped and started hopping up and down on his other foot. "Owchies more!" he cired.

"Mowon," Shadow Android muttered.

As usual, I'm the only one who bothers to try to figure out a solution. The problem is, this time I have absolutely no idea how to fix this.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Chapter Notes:

Willpower is the ability to eat just one salted peanut.

* * *

Ok, I think I've figured out a plan. It was time to inform Shadow Android and Robo Knuckles.

"Wisen up," I said, dropping into my leader mode. "We needies fwy to anudder base 'n' getties dem changies us backs."

Shadow Android raised his little hand. "Can'ts fy. Gots no jetty wokets. wes ohgants, memeries?"

Oh. Duh. How could I have forgotten that oh-so-obvious fact? Ok, new plan. Where could we go with no jet rockets? And even if we got there, who'd let us in?

I hate to admit this, but I'm at a complete loss over what to do. And though they don't voice it, the other two understand that. How does one deal with something like this?

"Medel Sonic, we jus' goin' walking round round?" Robo Knuckles asked timidly. Timidity was not normal for Robo Knuckles, but that just went to prove how desperate our situation was.

I nodded. "Got nuttin better dos," I replied.

You normal organics are so slow. How do you put up with it? With our rocket boosters, we could have been to Westopolis and back five times, with stops for coffee and a Danish to boot. Of course, had we been robots, we wouldn't need coffee and a Danish, but these new bodies of ours are grossly inefficient. I had charged up not four hours ago, and already internal sensors were informing me that I needed more fuel.

Although I do believe such warnings are known as a 'growling stomach' by most organics. Whatever it is, it is annoying.

Finally, though, we made it far enough to find yet another concern: To get to town, and the possibility of food and shelter, we had to go through the Mystic Ruins area.

Now, the Mystic Ruins had been dangerous before this whole mess started, when we were state of the art robotic equipment with a ton of defensive weaponry. So needless to say, the thought waltzing through as helpless toddlers was less than appealing. But it was the only chance we had.

I summoned the last ounce of my courage and slowly started to walk into the brush. Robo Knuckles grabbed my hand and pulled me back.

"We nots goin' dere!" he cried, his eyes wide. Robo Knuckles had been deathly afraid of the Mystic Ruins even before this whole mess started.

"We is," I told him. "Gossa go to town. Unwess you gossa bedder pwan?"

Robo Knuckles started to think intently. "No," he admitted finally. Then his eyes lit up and he said, "Wet Shadah Andoid go 'fore us!"

"Why?" Shadow Android asked.

"Cuz," Robo Knuckles explained. "Da meanie monsers eaties you up, not mes an' Medel Sonic. Cuz I wike mes and needies Medel Sonic. You is spendi…spamdies…" he frowned, trying to form the word he needed. Then he shrugged and said, "I no cares if you getted eaten."

"You wittle—" Shadow Android was all for killing Robo Knuckles at that precise instant, but I stepped between them.

"No times for dis!" I snapped. "Gots keep movies."

With that, I gulped and started into the Mystic Ruins, my counterparts unhappily following my lead.

I miss my internal GPS unit. This bloody jungle all looks the same!

"We dere yet?" Robo Knuckles asked me for the thirteenth time.

"You seeies big buildins an' peekals?" Shadow Android asked sarcastically.

"Whassa peekal?" Robo Knuckles wished to know.

Shadow Android's face turned dark and he kicked a small rock in anger. "I HATE dis!" he yelled.

"Shh!" Robo Knuckles whispered. "You goin' bring da monsers af'er us!"

"Ain't no mossters!" Shadow Android yelled. "Jus' big bugs an' stuff."

"Skeeto bugs," Robo Knuckles moaned, as he slapped a rather large mosquito that had landed on him. "Goin eat mes."

"Good. Den you shut ups," Shadow Android said, not at all sympathetic.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Robo Knuckles screamed. "Not dats!"

"Mowon," Shadow Android muttered, as I tried to determine whether I'd passed that funny looking tree before. I decided I had not and continued.

"We dere yet?" Robo Knuckles said five minutes later as I saw a large boulder that I was sure I had seen before. "Dis is takin' evers."

Shadow Android fidgeted nervously and looked around. "Been wong times," he admitted. "We almost dere now, Mekal Soni?"

"Um…" That was the only answer I had, as I desperately looked around to get my bearings.

Shadow Android stiffened considerably. "You…no knows?" he asked. The idea that I didn't know where I was going had never occurred to him.

Robo Knuckles suddenly realized what Shadow Android was implying. He gasped in shock. "We WOST!?" he screamed, collapsing to his knees. "We goin' DIES here! An' da big skeetos'll feast on our skin!"

"Mo-skeetos no eat skin," Shadow Android scoffed. "Just bwood."

"BWOOD!?" Robo Knuckles shrieked, sounding horrified.

"Yep."

Panicking, Robo Knuckles waved his arms frantically, presumably to warn off any tempted blood-sucking mosquitoes. "I NEED my bwood!" he screamed. "I so wittle, I onwy gots tiny bit!"

"None of dat goes to you head, huh?" Shadow Android asked, crossing his arms.

"DEY GOIN EAT MY HEAD TOO!?" Robo Knuckles was borderline hysterical now. He grabbed his head and yelled. "NO EAT MY BWAIN! IS 'PORTANT!"

"Pwease," Shadow Android rolled his eyes. "If dey twy eat you brain, dey stawve."

Robo Knuckles stopped panicking and narrowed his eyes. "Is you making funny mes, gin?"

"Yes."

"Medel Sonic! He makin' funny mes gin!"

"Tattwer!"

"Meanie!"

"STOP IT!" I yelled, and the two paused, each poised to seriously wound the other. "I no can hear me tink!"

There was a long, rather awkward silence all around. When it was broken, however, it was not by any of us.

Off in the distance, we all clearly heard someone yell, "I SWEAR TO GEORGE JEFFERSON'S MOTHER, BIG, IF I EVER SEE THAT STUPID FROG EVER AGAIN, I'LL MAKE FROG LEGS OUT OF HIM! NOW, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE AND STAY OUT!"

"I hear somebodies!" Robo Knuckles squealed. "We no wost now!"

"Quick, fowwow dat voice!" I ordered, and the three of us took off at a run, following the sound of the voice. In the back of my mind, I knew it sounded familiar; but I was tired, hungry, dirty, hot, and thirsty, and all I wanted to do was get out of this stupid jungle. So I didn't spend much time trying to place the mysterious yelling voice.

We finally stumbled out of the forest and into a small clearing, where I instantly recognized Tails' workshop. The fox kit was yelling now incomprehensible words (Although I suspect that if I could hear them, I wouldn't dare repeat them in this form) as he chased Big the Cat and Froggy out of his house with a broken broomstick. Big had a really big lump on his forehead, though that may have been a coincidence.

Shadow Android, Robo Knuckles, and I looked at each other and gulped. Having Tails find us helpless like this might not be a good thing. None of the organics we had cared for seemed to remember the time they spent with us as toddlers, and none of us were sure how'd they react when they realized we were now powerless.

I motioned for my two counterparts to get back into the foliage where we couldn't be seen, and they nodded wordlessly, turning back and starting to tiptoe away.

All of a sudden, Robo Knuckles tripped and fell, a startled cry escaping his lips. Shadow Android and I were already in the thicket, and we both froze at the sound of his voice.

I looked back worriedly and my eyes widened as I saw that Tails was looking right at Robo Knuckles with a startled expression on his face. He'd been caught!

"What in the…" he dropped his broom as Big and Froggy made a clean getaway, and flew towards us, landing a few feet away from Robo Knuckles. Although I'd always seen Tails as rather short, right now I couldn't help but be startled at how much he'd grown since I'd last seen him. Or maybe I'd shrunk.

"Hey, little guy," Tails said, taking Robo Knuckles' arm and helping him up. "How'd you get here?"

"I…" Robo Knuckles' voice faltered and he swallowed nervously. This was probably the first time in his life he'd been at a loss for words.

"I'm Tails," the fox continued. "What's your name?"

The temporary daze was past and Robo Knuckles instantly started to react like a toddler would in this situation. Which pretty much meant he acted naturally.

He started bawling and explaining everything to Tails from his creation to the present date, with sound effects thrown in. Luckily for all of us, his garbled speech, hysterical sobbing, and nonsense sounds made his explanation nearly impossible to understand if you didn't know what he was talking about. Sometimes not even then.

In the thicket, Shadow Android and I held our collective breaths, and I instinctively leaned forward so I'd be better situated to grab Robo Knuckles if things got ugly. Too bad the traitor branch I was leaning on snapped with a loud crack and I fell flat on my face.

Tails looked up to the thicket we were in and probably saw one or both of us hiding therein, because he called, "Come on out of there." When neither of us obliged, he softened his voice and said encouragingly, "It's ok. I won't hurt you."

Well, that was reassuring; so Shadow Android and I sheepishly crawled out of the bush and stood next to Robo Knuckles.

"How did you three get here?" Tails asked, keeping his voice friendly.

Shadow Android and I looked at each other, wondering how much information to give the fox kit, when Robo Knuckles opened his mouth and started blabbing like the big stool pigeon he was.

"We gotted WOSTED," he said. "An' skeetos twyed eat my BWAIN!"

"They did?" Tails said, sounding like he was trying very hard to humor Robo Knuckles. Then the fox kit looked around, frowning. "Where are your parents?"

"Gots none," Robo Knuckles, the big blabbermouth, said matter-of-factly.

Tails' eyes got big, and he asked, "Is ANYONE watching you?"

"Yes," Robo Knuckles said, proudly pointing at me. "Him is."

Tails stared at me funny, and all of a sudden I had a terrible feeling I'd done something wrong, although for the life of me, I couldn't think of what it was. I shuffled and nervously averted my eyes from his, instead inspecting a strange-looking bug as it crawled around at my feet.

"You're watching them?" he asked, his voice heavy with disbelief.

I nodded sheepishly. "I da owdest," I explained.

"By two days!" Robo Knuckles protested, holding up three fingers. Then he frowned, inspected his fingers, and added one more. "See?"

"What's your names, boys?" Tails asked, his eyes seeming to soften.

Luckily, Robo Knuckles wisely kept silent. I thought hard, trying to think of good names to tell him.

"I is…Nick…" I said. That made sense, I am Metal SoNIC, after all. Then, motioning at Shadow Android, I continued, "Dat's Andy…an' he is…" I can't think of a good name for Robo Knuckles!

However, he'd caught on to what I was doing and blurted out, "I Stevie Joe!"

"Stevie…Joe?" Tails asked, scratching his head. "That's your name?"

"Yes," Robo Knuckles said, looking wide-eyed and innocent.

"Right," Tails looked skeptical, but let it slide. He turned back to me and said, "Are you three hungry? I can make you some lunch if you'd like."

That sounded like the most wonderful thing I'd heard all day. I nodded eagerly, and the three of us followed Tails into his house.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Chapter Notes:

Helpful Writing Tip 1#: Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.

* * *

I'd been inside of Prower's house before, but this was the first time that I'd actually been invited in. The first thing I noticed was that Tails' automatic defenses didn't necessarily try to shoot anything that entered. Hmm, that was odd. Perhaps it was designed to only target machines?

Anyway, Tails took us to his kitchen and gently helped us get onto chairs around his table. Then he looked into his refrigerator, screamed, and slammed the door shut, his eyes wide and his breathing ragged. He muttered something that sounded like, "It's impossible…I'm imagining things…" and he cautiously opened the door a slight crack and peeked inside.

A large arm that appeared to be made out of moldy food items reached out of the doorway. Tails screamed again and grabbed a nearby wooden spoon, hitting the monstrosity with all his might.

"Back! Back! !" he yelled, beating the thing back and slamming the door shut. A muffled roar split the air, and Tails straightened up and grabbed a post-it note. He wrote 'clean out the refrigerator' and stuck it on the door.

"Is dat?" Shadow Android asked worriedly. To tell the truth, we were all pretty worried.

"Um…" Tails did his best to smile reassuringly and sooth our fears. "That was the leftover Tofu Tuna Ketchup Casserole that Shadow made a while back. It um…appears to have gained consciousness and is bent on global conquest. But I got it locked up in the fridge, so don't worry."

The three of us shared glances, obviously wondering the same thing.

'Shadow can cook?' mouthed Shadow Android, and I shrugged. Stranger things have happened in this world.

"Now, about food…" Tails looked into the cabinet and found two cans of an item of nourishment that proclaimed itself to be Spaghetti-O's. He opened the cans and divided the contents equally into three separate bowls, which he offered to the three of us.

I hesitantly picked up the spoon he had provided and scooped up a small amount of the spherical objects and tentatively tasted it. My eyes widened and I swallowed, grabbing another spoonful eagerly. This stuff was good!

Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android were chowing down with equal delight. Robo Knuckles was shoving his in so fast that more of it ended up in his fur or the floor than it did his mouth. So he finished first; but his hunger was unabated, so he hopped out of his seat and started shoving his spoon into Shadow Android's bowl.

Shadow Android found this behavior completely unacceptable; he moved his bowl out of the way and kicked at Robo Knuckles with his foot. Undeterred, Robo Knuckles rushed to where the bowl was presently and reached for it. Shadow Android raised the bowl over his head and held Robo Knuckles back with his foot. Robo Knuckles made a whining noise and waved his spoon towards the cherished bowl.

Tails, who had been rinsing out the two cans, turned and noticed the proceedings.

"Hey!" he called. "What's going on?"

The two stopped suddenly, looking over at Tails, obviously trying to think of a way to explain themselves. Tails walked over and grabbed Robo Knuckles and put him back at his seat. Then he handed the unhappy echidna a slice of buttered toast.

Robo Knuckles bit into it and decided it was a suitable substitute for Spaghetti-O's.

I rolled my eyes at him and took another bite of my own meal. I hadn't realized how wonderful food was. Spaghetti-O's were really good.

After he'd seen that we'd all had enough to eat, Tails dropped a bombshell on us that I had certainly not been expecting.

"A bath?" I gasped, my eyes wide. We can't take baths! Well, technically, that's not true, I guess. We aren't metal anymore; so water won't make us rust. So I could take a bath.

I just don't want to take a bath!

"Take batties?" Robo Knuckles asked, cocking his head. "Neber had batties 'fore."

Tails stopped and stared at Metal Knuckles again. "You've never had a bath?"

Robo Knuckles shook his head no.

Regaining his composure, Tails picked Robo Knuckles up again and said, "Well, we'll have to fix that, won't we Stevie Joe?"

"Oh, I no Stevie Joe no more," Robo Knuckles said matter-of-factly.

Tails' eyebrow raised and he gave an amused smirk as he toted Metal Knuckles off to the bathroom. "It's not?" he asked. "Then what is it?"

"Um…is Ektwoisogwaph."

"Uh…huh…" Tails gave Robo Knuckles another strange look as he started the bathwater running. "That's pretty long. How about I just call you Stevie Joe for now?"

"Okies."

Ten minutes later, a clean yet soggy Robo Knuckles emerged from the bathroom and Tails carted Shadow Android off in his place.

Robo Knuckles sat down on the couch and gave me a big grin. "Batties fun!" he cheered. Sure, about as much fun as getting your head pounded in, if you ask my opinion.

Not noticing my unenthusiasm on the topic, Robo Knuckles started rubbing his arms. "See? Is skicky queen!"

He wasn't squeaking, if that's what he was trying to say. Not the least bit bothered, he just kept going. "And has ampoo in your fuzzy fur. Wash, wash, wash!"

I saw Tails come out with an equally clean yet still soggy Shadow Android, and I set my jaw defiantly. I am not getting in that water!

"Ok, Nick," Tails said, smiling at me. I am not fooled by your sappy demeanor, fox…you will not take me! "It's your turn."

I quickly dived between his legs and started running for shelter. Tails was fast, though, and he caught me and dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the dreaded bathroom.

"NO!" I screamed as he shut the door, cutting me off from any means of escape. I could see the bathwater now…you won't do this to me, Prower! I won't let you!

"You no takies me AWIVE!" I yelled, ducking behind the toilet. I grabbed the toilet plunger—good, now I have a weapon. Tails had better stay back if he knows what's good for him!

"Come on, Nick," Tails said, sighing loudly. "It's just a bath." He knelt down and reached for me, thereby putting himself in range for my attack. Ha! The fool!

"NO!" I yelled, swinging my plunger-weapon and nailing him on the head. Tails yelped and stumbled back. I took my chance and bolted away, rushing to the doorway and desperately reaching for the doorknob. Curses, why do they make those things so high up?

My inability to reach the doorknob foiled any attempt to escape, as Tails grabbed me and put me in the dreaded bath water.

"NO!" I screamed, struggling to get away. "Habe ERSY!"

"Calm down, Nick," Tails said, grabbing a bucket and dumping water over my head, like the sick little twerp he was. "It's not going to kill you to take a bath."

I glared at him. "STOP!" I ordered. Instead of stopping, he grabbed a bottle of something and started rubbing it on my fur. Then he started drenching me again!

I started hitting his arms, hoping to make him let go. Other than to tell me to stop, it did nothing.

Finally, though, he took me out of the bathtub and started rubbing my fur with a towel. When he stopped, my fur poofed out like some sort of fuzzy chia pet. Oh, the indignity!

Then he picked me up and put me on the couch with my counterparts, both of whom teased me on my new 'look'.

I hate baths.

I must have gone into charge mode. Or fallen asleep, as you organics call it. I certainly don't remember doing so; I just remember waking up because someone was pounding on the door.

Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android were still sound asleep on the couch, so I alone witnessed Tails walk to the door and open it. Outside was Sonic the Hedgehog and his pet, Zombie.

"Hey Tails," Sonic greeted. "What'cha doin'?"

"Hi, Sonic," Tails said. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd check up on you, is all," Sonic replied, stepping inside. "Hey, what's to eat around here?" And he was off like a flash of lightning to the kitchen.

Tails' eyes widened and he tried to warn his friend of the dangers in the fridge. "Sonic, don't open the…"

"AUGH!" That remark told me that the warning came a touch too late. Tails rushed into the kitchen. Curious, I climbed off the couch and peeked into the kitchen to see what was going on.

This time, the fridge was wide open, so I got a good view of the monster. It looked like it was made entirely out of moldy products, and it was as big as the entire inside of the refrigerator. It roared loudly as Sonic bravely fought it back by swinging Zombie at it.

"Back, foul beast!" Sonic ordered, and Zombie chomped his teeth several times for emphasis. "Back to the pit from whence thou came!" He finally got the monster reasonably into the fridge and slammed the door on it. He took a few deep breaths and looked at Tails.

"Um…I'm no expert, Lil Bro, but you might wanna clean out that refrigerator."

"Sure thing, Sonic," Tails agreed.

Sonic grinned and sat up, making eye contact with me. The grin faded and he blinked several times. "Uh…Tails?" he finally managed to asked.

"Yeah, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Why is there a kid in your house?"

"Hmm?" Tails turned and saw me. "That's Nick, Sonic. He and his brothers are staying with me for a while."

"Oh, why didn't you say so?" In a flash of wind, Sonic was standing right next to me. I looked up at him…and up, and up… (Wow, he's as big as the Empire State Building. OK, maybe not that big, but still…)

"Hey, buddy," Sonic said, striking his world famous pose. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Chapter Notes:

Writing Rule 2#: And never start a sentence with a conjunction.

* * *

I must have gawked at Sonic the Hedgehog like a total idiot for nearly ten minutes. It sure seemed like that long. For one thing, I couldn't get over how enormous he was. For another thing, the shock of seeing him here, now, made me forget what I had told Tails was my name. And somehow, saying, "Hi, Sonic, it's me, Metal Sonic! Remember, the guy who tried to rip your guts out for as long as either of us can remember?" isn't my idea of getting off to a good start.

So I just stared until Tails finally took pity on me and came to my rescue.

"It's OK, Nick," Tails said. "This is my big brother, Sonic, and his pet Chao, Zombie."

I bit back a sarcastic remark about noticing the family resemblance, since I figured that a two-year-old probably wouldn't say sarcastic remarks about resemblance, or lack thereof. So instead, I nodded and said, "Um…Hi, Shonic."

Great! I can't even say 'Sonic' right!

Sonic grinned a big, cheesy grin. "Right back at'cha, Nick-O-Rama."

Yeah, that was pretty corny. He couldn't have honestly just said…no, I'm hearing things. I must be. Then again…I do seem to recall him once racing up the Statue of Liberty and shoving a chili dog in the iconic Lady's mouth to make America seem more inviting to foreigners. Yeah, it didn't work out all that well. Although, I do believe America was a good deal more popular with seagulls and pigeons for awhile. Last I heard, Sonic was trying to dismiss a lawsuit from the guys in charge of keeping the statue clean.

Tails picked me back up and laid me back on the couch, obviously mistaking my surreal quietness for an indication that I needed more naptime, which I honestly didn't…

I woke with a start. What the…how did I go to sleep? I don't even remember closing my eyes.

I stretched and yawned, looking around the couch. This time, Shadow Android and Robo Knuckles were awake as well.

"Wha's happen?" I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes.

"Shh," Shadow Android hushed me, his eyes fixated on the closed kitchen door.

"What?" I whispered.

"Sad-oh come in Tails' housy, and Sonic takies him to kitchen," Robo Knuckles whispered, trembling slightly. "Soniv say Sad-oh need dwinkies fwom 'fwidgewator."

I gasped. Surely Sonic wouldn't knowingly risk opening the door and unleashing the Leftover Monster!

An unearthly roar split the air, followed by a startled, "What the—" that sounded like Shadow's voice, then the sound of a gunshot. Then, all was sinisterly quiet.

Tails, who had been in his lab on the other side of his house, and therefore blissfully unaware of the trouble Sonic was causing, came rushing into the living room, grabbing us one by one and frantically checking for bullet wounds. "What happened?" he shrieked in panic.

As one, we all pointed towards the kitchen door, which was opening as a furious Shadow and excited Sonic walked out, both covered with moldy Leftover Monster guts.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Sonic laughed. "Tails, you should have seen the look on his face when he opened the fridge!"

Shadow gave Sonic an evil look and crossed his arms. "Would you care to explain why I was just assaulted by a giant monster made out of moldy food?"

"No," Sonic admitted. "But it was fun to watch."

Shadow's eyes grew cold and in a second he had Sonic by the scruff of the neck, his free hand drawn back and already starting to form a Chaos Spear. Leaning close to Sonic's ear, Shadow said in an eerie, quiet tone, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear your head off."

Sonic gave a weak, pathetic smile and suggested, "Um…because you don't believe in unethical violence?"

Shadow's eyes narrowed, and he gave a wicked smirk. "Nice try," he admitted, getting prepped to fire.

Just as Shadow was about to do what I had endeavored to do my entire life, which was end Sonic's rather pathetic one, a low snarl drew his attention. Zombie, who was crimson red and literally foaming at the mouth, flew into view and perched on Sonic's shoulder. The Chao glared accusingly at the hand Shadow had around Sonic's neck. Then Zombie bit it.

Shadow gave a startled yelp and yanked back, his non bitten hand instinctively covering the wounded one. He turned his haunting red gaze on the smirking Chao's silvery white hues, and the two glared at each other with pure hatred.

Tails saw this as a singular opportunity to stop any extra violence and he placed himself between the two before they could effectively nuke the place.

"Alright already, you've both made your points," Tails said, pushing Shadow back with one hand and grabbing Zombie's wings with the other. The Chao went back to his original coloring, but he still snarled at Shadow, waving his stubby arms as he tried to free himself from Tails' grasp. When he found this to be impossible, he contented himself with sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry at the peeved ebony hedgehog.

"Sonic, get your pet," Tails said authoritively, and Sonic meekly took Zombie off of Tails hands. Zombie gave his owner a cheesy grin and somehow did the Victory sign although he had no fingers.

Now that Zombie was under control, Tails turned his attention to Shadow. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Sonic acting like an infant is one thing; we're all used to that—"

"Hey!" Sonic huffed, looking offended.

Ignoring him, Tails continued, "—But that's no excuse for you to behave like a two-year-old. No offense, guys," Tails said, turning to us.

I nodded gravelly. I should get an Oscar for this performance; it certainly ain't easy to sit though this with a straight face. Shadow Android was snickering, trying to hide his smile behind his hand. Robo Knuckles wasn't even trying to act like he wasn't amused. The baby echidna was laughing his little head off.

Turning his attention back to Shadow, Tails finished, "You know better than to act like this, and so do you Sonic, and you should both be ashamed of yourselves! Now, apologize to each other!"

Shadow set his jaw and crossed his arms again. Sonic shuffled nervously and held his hand out to Shadow. "Uh…sorry about tricking you into unleashing a killer food monster," he apologized.

Shadow glared at him. "Humph," he said, which is Shadow speak for, "Don't worry about it; I think I might have overreacted."

Tails looked suspiciously from one hedgehog to another. Then, satisfied that the two were done trying to maul each other, he turned back to Zombie. "Well?" he asked. "Don't you have something to say to Shadow?"

Zombie looked thoughtful, then his eyes lit up. He looked over at Shadow and stuck his tongue out. Then he turned around and started doing a little dance while making a buzzing sound that resembled humming. (For those who are wondering, it sounded like he was humming the song 'Can't Touch This.')

Tails reached over and gave him a stiff pop on the head. Zombie straightened up, put his stubby hands over his heart, and faked an overdramatic death scene.

Tails looked at Sonic in exasperation. "It's your pet, Sonic."

Sonic nodded, then his face lit up, as if he was remembering something. "Oh! Shads, I totally forgot."

"That's not surprising," Shadow said dryly. "And don't call me Shads."

"Sure thing, Shads," Sonic said agreeably. "Anyway, I want you to meet our three new kidlets. This is Nick," Sonic said, pointing at me. "And…um…the other two Nicks," he finished, as he realized he didn't know who my counterparts were.

Tails sighed. "The little black hedgehog is Andy, and the echidna is Stevie Joe."

Shadow raised a single eyebrow. "Stevie Joe?"

"That's what he said," Tails admitted.

"Right," Shadow said. "I'm leaving." With that, he turned and walked away.

"Well, that went well," Sonic said cheerfully. Tails moaned and touched his forehead, muttering something about needing ibuprofen.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Chapter Notes:

Writing tip number 3#: One should NEVER generalize.

* * *

Sonic rushed out of the doorway and returned, dragging the protesting Shadow back into the house. "You can't leave yet, Shads!" Sonic chided. "You don't even know why I asked you over!"

"I. Don't. Care," Shadow said, crossing his arm and starting back out the door. Zombie positioned himself inside the doorway and snarled at him. Shadow sighed loudly and turned back to Sonic. "This better be good," he warned.

"OK, I was going through town today and guess what? The carnival is here! We should totally take the kids out to play the rides!"

A carnival? Why would this city need a carnival? Didn't they have that amusement park?

A suppressed memory of Amy Rose beating the stuffing out of me at a semi-demolished Twinkle Park rose to the surface, and I couldn't help but shudder.

Tails noticed and gently draped a blanket around my legs. He must have thought I was cold. I wasn't but the little blanket he gave me was very comforting. Almost without realizing it I grabbed it and pulled it close.

Shadow Android and Metal Knuckles stared at me with strange looks on their face. I gave them a 'what are you looking at?' glare.

"Uh…Medal Sonic, you is sucky tumb," Robo Knuckles leaned in close and said in a whisper.

What the…I blinked and glanced down. Sure enough, my left thumb was firmly nestled in my mouth. I hadn't even realized I…I yanked the thumb out of my mouth and glared at my snickering comrades. "Wook, I is two," I said defensively. "I is wowed."

"Wight," Shadow Android said, snickering more.

I felt my face grow hot and I turned back to the now-enormous Sonic and Shadow, who were still bickering about the carnival.

"I thought you said that this was important!" Shadow said, his eyes flashing as he fought hard to keep from decking his blue rival.

"It is! You can't expect me and Tails to watch those three all night by ourselves! They out number us! We NEED you, Shads!" Sonic said, rather unconvincingly, as far as Shadow was concerned.

"Humph," the crimson-eyed hedgehog replied.

"I'll let you pick the one you want to watch," Sonic said in a sing-song voice.

Shadow sighed. "You won't let me get out of this, will you?" he asked.

"Nope!" Sonic admitted cheerfully.

"Fine," Shadow walked over to the couch and picked up Shadow Android. (What a surprise.) "Let's get this over with."

"Alright!" Sonic cheered, grabbing me and Robo Knuckles by the hand and practically yanking us off the couch. I, for some reason, couldn't seem to let go of the little purple blanket Tails had given me. It was reassuring, for some reason.

"Come on, Tails! We'll need to go now if we want to beat the crowd!" Sonic called.

"Wit stick?" Robo Knuckles asked.

Sonic snickered as Tails reluctantly left his work and took Robo Knuckles off Sonic's hand. Then we were off to this carnival.

Back at the robots' base, Eggman was yelling because the trash wasn't taken out and his three wayward robots were nowhere to be found.

"Where have those yahoos gone to?" Eggman asked, running through his monitors and looking through the security tapes. "I give them one simple task after another and they…"

The reason he stopped was because he had found the tape that showed the robots being turned into organic toddlers and getting kicked out.

"This…this is amazing! It's not possible! And yet…" Eggman's eyes glittered as evil thoughts entered his head. "If robots can be turned into organics, could organics be turned into robots?" he asked.

There was only one way to know the answer. He had to get his now organic machines back and do a little bit of testing.

Eggman hopped into his latest doomsday device and raced off to find them, laughing evilly all the way.

The carnival is amazing! I've never actually attended one before without, you know, blowing everything up.

For the most part, the six of us stayed together. Most of the time, Robo Knuckles, Shadow Android, and I rode the smaller rides while the bored-looking adults hung around and watched us. But Sonic was absolutely thrilled when he found that we were big enough to ride the bumper cars as long as we rode with an older person who was big enough to ride alone.

We rode bumper cars ten times. It was really fun, especially for me and Shadow Android. Sonic always went slightly nuts on the bumper cars, and I have since learned that Shadow was always slightly psychotic when he got behind the wheel of any vehicle, so there was tons of bumping for the two of us. Robo Knuckles and Tails wouldn't have been bumped at all if not for the fact that Sonic made it a point to pound them whenever possible.

I like the carnival.

After we got off the bumper cars for the fifth time, Robo Knuckles noticed the Ultimate Kiddie Ride—helicopters that actually went way up in the air (At least, way up in the air when you're two) and spun around. It was on the other side of the carnival, but the three of us eagerly dragged our less-than-enthusiastic guardians over to the ride.

While we eagerly waited for the ride to load us on, we realized we were near a dunking tank. The man in a clown suit that was supposed to be dunked had a microphone attached to his shirt and was heckling the passersby, as well as anyone who stopped to dunk him.

"Run kids!" he warned a pair of nine-year old girls as they rushed to another ride. "There's a hideous monster behind you! Oh, wait, that's your dad, right?"

Shadow turned to the clown and rolled his eyes before taking his attention elsewhere. The clown must have seen him, because he started heckling Shadow.

"Hey, Goth Boy, what's with the stripes? You look like a demonic bumblebee over there!"

Shadow grit his teeth and his hands clenched into fists, but he pointedly ignored the heckler.

Undeterred by this, the clown kept it up. "What's the matter, sunshine? Deaf? Or are you too stupid to know when you're being insulted?"

Shadow grabbed the railing in an attempt to keep himself from doing something he might regret when the police hauled him off for it. I wished the clown would go pick on somebody else. Riding the helicopters didn't seem like very much fun anymore.

But the heckler just kept at it. "Nice shoes. Lose a bet?"

Shadow took a deep breath and whirled around, a scary look in his eyes. But surprisingly, it was Sonic the Hedgehog who actually confronted the heckler.

"Hey, Bobo, shove it up your pie hole!" Sonic yelled, grabbing Zombie and whispering something in his Chao's ear. Zombie nodded, turned bright green with orange eyes, and pointed a claw at the bull's-eye that would knock the heckler into the water. Sonic squeezed Zombie's middle and a laser beam shot out of his claw, nailing the bull's-eye and dunking the clown.

The clown popped his seat back up, sat down on it, and quipped, "Oh, you're the coolest guy in the crowd now, aren't you, blue boy?"

"I'll never be as cool as you are bald, Chrome Dome," Sonic rebutted, turning around. "Now remember, Tubby, nobody makes fun of Goth Boy but me, got it?" he warned.

The clown must have got it, because he didn't heckle Shadow anymore.

Shadow stared at Sonic with a faint frown. "I can take care of myself," he said.

"You're welcome," Sonic replied, as Shadow Android, Metal Knuckles, and I finally got to go on our ride.

Yes, I definitely like the carnival. And I do think Sonic is sort of cool. But I still don't like him.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Chapter Notes:

Writing Tip: Prepositions are not words to end a sentence with.

* * *

I cannot believe that I need to be refueled again! Hadn't I just refueled a few hours ago?

Apparently, I was not the only one who desired sustenance, for Robo Knuckles tugged on Tail's leg and said with an adorably annoying whine, "I is hungy!"

"Again?" Tails asked wonderingly. "Didn't you just eat two hours ago?"

"Two hours is a loooooong time to go without food, Tails," Sonic said.

"How would you know?" Shadow snapped, crossing his arms. "You hardly let ten minutes go by without stuffing your face."

Sonic turned to Shadow and his eyes narrowed. "Is that a shot?"

"What do you think?" Shadow asked.

Sonic gave Shadow a sour look, but then he turned back to Tails, forgetting all about it. "We should all totally take a time-out for chili dogs," he said.

Robo Knuckles tugged on Shadow's hand. When Shadow looked down, Robo Knuckles whispered, "Wassa ciwi dog?"

Shadow muttered, "Heck on earth."

Robo Knuckles frowned, obviously wondering why Sonic would enjoy eating heck on earth; and to be fair I was wondering the same thing.

Sonic, however, made a tsking sound and took Robo Knuckles' hand. "Don't listen to Mr. Fussbudget," he told him. "He's a big weenie."

Shadow looked miffed, and Sonic grinned at him. "Yeah, Shads, it was a shot," the cobalt blue hedgehog said matter-of-factly.

"Don't call me Shads," was his ebony furred rival's reply.

Shadow Android, meanwhile, had been silent, his legs locked together in a funny way. He looked like he was in pain.

I looked at him curiously. "What's wong wiph you?" I asked.

Shadow Android shrugged, although it seemed to be hard for him to do. "I dunno. I jus' don' feel good." Then, he started leaking, an activity that shocked us both.

It shocked Tails, too, but for a different reason. "Andy!" he cried, picking up the sopping wet toddler. "Aren't you potty trained?"

Shadow Android gave Tails a big, blank look. Potty training was never a problem for any of us before. And, surprisingly, none of us had thought that it might pose a problem now.

Shadow Android finally found some sort of answer to give Tails. "I cold now," he said, sounding half ashamed of himself, even though the accident really hadn't been his fault.

Tails sighed loudly. "Sonic, Shadow, you two go ahead and get Nick and Stevie Joe a chili dog while I go get Andy cleaned up." he said, twirling his tails and starting to fly back to his house where he could clean up Shadow Android.

Sonic and Shadow watched him fly out of sight, then they turned to us. "Who's hungry?" he asked us.

"Me! Me!" Robo Knuckles squealed, jumping up and down while raising his hand.

"Alright! Chili dogs for all!" Sonic said grandly.

"Heck on Earth," Shadow muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for me to hear him.

The two adults led us to a concession stand and Sonic got us each a chili dog, except for Shadow, who simply ordered a bottled water.

Afterwards, Sonic led us to a table to eat the Chili dogs. I was a little hesitant; I wasn't sure I wanted to taste heck on earth, but my hunger won out over my better judgment and I hesitantly tasted the chili dog.

This is GOOD! It beats Spaghetti O's by a LONG shot! I grinned up at Sonic, who had an 'I told you so,' look on his face, and then I plowed into the chili dog, which I completely devoured in the space of a few minutes.

After I ate the very last bit of the bun and licked chili from my fingertips, I looked over at Robo Knuckles, who was, surprisingly, only about half done.

"You no hungy?" I asked.

Robo Knuckles shrugged. "It taste funny," he said, scrunching up his nose.

What? How could he even THINK that? This was the most wonderful thing I'd ever put in my mouth!

Of course, previously all I'd ever had in my mouth was spaghetti O's, some soapy water that trickled in there from my bath, and my thumb. But still…chili dogs really was the best tasting thing I'd eaten so far by a long shot.

I opened my mouth, wondering if I could still say the word 'blasphemy' well enough so that he would know of my accusation, when a large explosion shook the carnival, knocking me from the table and to the ground, where I got a good mouthful of dirt. And in case you're wondering, chili dogs taste way better than that, too.

I sat up, wondering what was happening, when someone grabbed me by the waist and took off with me, going at an incredible speed. I looked up and Sonic gave me a reassuring smile, picking up speed. Looking around, I saw Shadow next to us, holding Robo Knuckles as we all ran away from…whatever it was that was attacking us.

Finally, at the edge of the carnival, Sonic set me down behind a game booth and Shadow put Robo Knuckles next to me.

"Stay here while we stop that thing from hurting anybody," Sonic ordered, as he and Shadow went to fight the Whatever It Was.

Curious, I poked my head out from behind the booth and my eyes widened as I saw one of Eggman's giant robots destroying the carnival. It was frightening; but confusing at the same time, because I remember Eggman telling me that he was going to use the device to take over an important military installation across the country. Why would Eggman risk Sonic and Shadow destroying it by sending it to a carnival, where there was nothing he could gain?

Nothing unless…oh, no…he knows about…

"It's a distwaction!" I gasped, yanking backwards and grabbing Robo Knuckles' hand. "He is wooking us!"

Robo Knuckles eyes widened and tears started to spring up unbidden. "I no want go back," he cried. "Eggman is mean!"

My sentiments exactly. I motioned for Robo Knuckles to keep down and peeked back outside to see what was going on. Maybe we'd get lucky and Eggman wouldn't find us. That hope was lost as I saw that as well as the giant robot, who was keeping Sonic and Shadow busy, the carnival was littered with SWATbots, all of whom were tracking something.

"Energy signal located," One said. "Target nearby."

This is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad…

"We shouldn't 've eaten da chiwi, dogs," Robo Knuckles whispered. "Dey is heck on eart'!"

I made a mental note to smack the little heathen later for his sacrilege. If we made it out of this, anyway. I bit my lip and wondered how accurate the tracking beacon they were using was. I got my answer a second later as the SWATbots started to head towards us.

"What we does?" Robo Knuckles asked in terror.

I didn't answer him. Sonic and Shadow were on the other side of the carnival; and with their attention on the robot they wouldn't hear us scream for help. Calling for help would do nothing but alert the bad guys to our position, something they were doing a little too well on their own.

There was really only one thing I could do. And chili dog heathen or not, allowing Eggman to get his greedy mitts on Robo Knuckles now was not an option.

"No matter what happen, you stay," I ordered him. "Wait for gwown ups."

He nodded, not realizing what I was about to do. I took a deep breath and, before either Robo Knuckles or my better judgment could stop me, I jumped out from behind the booth.

"Comeys get me, wust bucket!" I taunted, turning and running towards Sonic and Shadow. I really didn't expect to get to them, but I could hope.

"Target signature identified. Objective: Capture hedgehog," the SWATbots said unanimously, turning away from Robo Knuckles and towards me. Within seconds they had reached and overpowered me.

I couldn't help but scream to high heaven as the SWATbots dragged me off. But I was still too far away from Sonic and Shadow; and though I could see them, with their attention on the robot and the loud explosions near their area, they neither saw me nor heard me cry out in distress.

'Something isn't right here,' Sonic the Hedgehog thought to himself. 'It's not trying to kill us as hard as it should be.'

Though it was far from easy fighting Eggman's giant robot (which is unnamed because the authoress cannot seem to think of a decent egg-related name to give it that hasn't already been taken), but Sonic couldn't help but shake the feeling that they were being duped.

The feeling only increased when the robot suddenly turned and left for no apparent reason.

"That was too easy," Sonic said aloud, mostly to ease his misgivings.

Shadow nodded, apparently thinking the same thing he was. "Let's get the children back to Tails, then we'll go after it," he said.

'And figure out what it's after,' they both thought.

Sonic's sense of foreboding increased tenfold when he saw evidence of recent SWATbot activity near where they'd hidden the children. There had been no SWATbots when they'd hidden them, and the area was deserted, why on earth would…

Breaking out into an uneasy run, Sonic called, "Nick? Stevie Joe? Where are you?"

The latter child rushed out from the hiding spot, sobbing loudly as he nearly tackled Sonic and clung to his fur. "Sonic!" he sobbed. "Da wobots took him! Take all 'ways!"

Sonic felt like someone had punched him in the gut. That's why he was feeling so queasy—it had been a decoy. He should have known, after…

While the children had slept on the couch, Tails, Sonic, and Shadow had had a long talk about them. After all, it could hardly be a coincidence that two baby hedgehogs with striking resemblances to Sonic and Shadow had shown up in the woods with no parents, accompanied by a baby Echidna, a race that was now, save for Knuckles, practically nonexistent. Tails was absolutely sure that Eggman was involved somehow. Shadow had gone so far to suggest that they were spies.

Sonic blew that idea out of the water; Eggman wasn't a 'use toddlers to spy on them so I can destroy them' kind of guy, he was more of a 'let's build a big robot and blow stuff up with it,' fellow. Shadow and Tails had to agree.

Sonic had taken the conversation and had filed it away in the part of his mind called 'irrelevant.' He wished he hadn't been so dismissive now that it was obvious that Eggman did have something to do with the children, and he wanted them back.

And if he touched so much as a quill on Nick's head…


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Chapter Notes:

The funniest thing about this note is that by the time you realize it says nothing it's too late to stop reading it.

* * *

Eggman's base is cold, dark, and scary. I don't understand how I couldn't have realized that until now. The SWATbots had taken me inside and tossed me unceremoniously into one of Eggman's cells. It was taking every ounce of stubbornness and pride to keep myself from sobbing my eyes out, which I wanted to do so badly.

But I refuse to give Eggman the satisfaction.

So instead, I comforted myself by remembering that Robo Knuckles was safe, at least. It made me feel a little better. Emphasis on little.

The feeling left completely as the door to my cell opened and a face from my nightmares appeared. Eggman.

He was looking at me eagerly, his beady eyes glinting cruelly. "Well, well, well," he said, walking towards me. I instinctively backed into a corner and curled into a fetal position, burying my face in my knees. Maybe if I can't see him, he can't see me.

Uh, it seems my mental state is becoming more and more childlike in some places, because I really don't think that was a logical statement…

It was also a theory that was blown completely out of the water as Eggman grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. "That's enough," he snapped. "I've been extremely patient with you, Metal Sonic, but no more."

I hadn't thought he'd been very patient at all. I struggled against him for a moment, but he was much too strong for me. "Nick," I whimpered as I tried to pry his fingers off my arm.

Eggman frowned, as if he hadn't realized I could talk. "What?" he asked.

"I IS NICK!" I screamed, kicking him in the shin.

"OW!" Eggman yelped, letting go of me and hopping up and down on one foot. That's fun to watch, but he's still blocking the door.

Eggman rubbed his foot and glared at me. "I'm going to drag you to my deconstruction assembly," he told me. "And I'm going to find out how this happened and how to reverse it to make organic beings robotic slaves, and then I'm going to rip you apart, piece by piece!"

Ooooh, boy, I've really made him mad this time. Eggman started towards me again, and I backed up, looking around wildly for some way of escape.

The intruder alert siren went off at that moment.

"Oh, now what?" Eggman snarled, walking back out of the cell and slamming the door shut. We both knew who it was. And I never thought I'd be happy to know that Sonic the Hedgehog had just broken into the base!

It was still cold, and other than SWATbots rushing past me to fight the intruder, there was no sign of any other creature besides me. I wondered what was keeping Sonic. Shouldn't he have been here by now?

Suddenly, a sickening thought entered my mind. What if…what if Sonic wasn't here for me? There was a Chaos Emerald somewhere in the base, I vaguely remember seeing it here. What if Sonic was after the emerald and didn't want to be bothered with me?

That thought was too much for me to handle, and I could no longer keep myself from crying. I laid my head down on my lap and sobbed to my heart's content.

"Nick?"

My ears perked up. That sounded like…

"Nick, are you ok?"

Warm arms wrapped around me in a hug and I looked up. "Shonic?" I whimpered. He came for me! He really came!

"Hey, buddy," Sonic said soothingly, as I eagerly crawled into his lap. I wanted to get out of here so bad, but mostly I wanted to know that Sonic wasn't going to be leaving me anytime soon. I felt safe with him; nothing could hurt me. "Did he hurt you, Nick?" Sonic asked gently.

I shook my head, wiping tears from my eyes. "He says he gonna wip me pieces," I replied, shuddering at the thought.

Sonic's face grew dark. "Over my dead body," he said, sounding harsh. Then he softened and said, "It's over, now. I won't let Eggman hurt you ever again, Metal Sonic."

My eyes widened and I jerked back. "You know?" I gasped. "How?"

Sonic cocked his head and smirked. "You look like a Mini-Metal Sonic. Eggman wants you back way bad. And Robo Knuckles spilled his guts after Eggman took you."

Oh, that made sense. Robo Knuckles never could keep a secret. I fidgeted nervously.

"You is mad?" I asked. The thought of Sonic being mad at me was unbearable. I'd rather Eggman rip me to a million pieces than that.

"No, I'm not mad at you," Sonic insisted.

"Okies…no weaves cus I is Medle?" I continued, voicing a fear I'd had since my counterparts and I stumbled into Tails' clearing.

"No," Sonic said. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Good," I said, snuggling closer to him as he stood up and the two of us zoomed out of this Chaos forsaken place.

Five minutes later, we were back in the clearing, looking at Tails' workshop. I could see Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android waving at me from the window, and I could see Shadow on the couch, and I could see Tails screaming and chasing Big out of the house with a mop. It's the simple things in life that make it all worthwhile.

It was SO good to be back in Tails' workshop, with Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android. The two were on me instantly, talking a mile a minute, mostly about how the adults knew about us and liked us anyway.

When I got in and settled down at the couch, with Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android flanking me, Tails rushed over and gave me a detailed check up, asking me several questions about what had happened at Eggman's base. I answered as best I could, and when he was finished and convinced that I was uninjured, he took a pair of scissors and clipped off a part of my quill, then left.

"He do dat us too," Shadow Android explained at my bewildered expression. I personally could not see why Tails would want part of my quill.

"A bad ting happen," Robo Knuckles whispered conspiratorially, occasionally glancing at the door. "Dey callies Uckies!"

"Calls Uckles?" I asked, looking at Shadow Android for confirmation. He nodded.

"When dey findies out, dey callies him wight 'way. He getties hewe soon," he told me.

Robo Knuckles, at least, did not seem to think this was a comforting thought. "He haties me!" he sobbed.

"He no knowies you yet," Shadow Android scoffed.

"He no knows me, an' he alweady haties me!" Robo Knuckles replied.

Wouldn't you know it, the theme of our discussion walked into the workshop at that moment, looking put off about something. Knuckles' eyes scanned the room, then he located Robo Knuckles, who was trying in vain to hide behind a couch cushion.

Knuckles' eyes widened in shock and disbelief, and he bounded across the room in a few seconds, yanking the pillow out of Robo Knuckles' arms and staring at him in shock. Finally, Knuckles leaned down and touched Robo Knuckles' chest.

There was a crescent shaped birthmark there. One that I know wasn't there when he was a robot. It's a wonder I hadn't noticed it before.

Knuckles traced the mark and stared up at Robo Knuckles in wonder. "How?" he finally managed to ask.

Sonic, luckily, was nearby and told Knuckles the whole story. But when he was finished, Knuckles shook his head.

"No," he said. "Robo Knuckles didn't have this," he pointed at the birthmark. "So how do you explain that?"

"Tails is trying to figure out how the whole thing worked," Sonic replied. "He'll figure it out and probably have your answer for you soon."

Knuckles looked back at the crescent and frowned, finally getting up and looking over to Tails' workplace expectantly. Sonic sighed.

"Hey," he called, looking over to us. "You guys want some juice?"

"Ok," I said, even though I wasn't sure just what juice was.

"Three juices, coming right up!" Sonic said cheerfully, turning and walking into the kitchen.

A second later, an all-too-familiar howl sounded from inside, along with Sonic shrieking in disbelief, "I thought Shadow killed you!"

Surprisingly, the Leftover Monster spoke back. "Foolish hedgehog! I cannot be killed! I am INVINCIBLE and I will DESTROY YOU ALL!"

"NEVER!" Sonic yelled, as Knuckles, wondering what the heck was going on, rushed over to the kitchen an opened the door. The Echidna's jaw dropped.

"What is that thing?" he asked in shock.

With Knuckles holding that door open, we all got a good look at this revived Leftover Monster. It was even bigger than before, and had apparently become intelligent enough to speak fluent English. It was also holding something that looked like a machine gun made out of moldy sausage.

"I have become more powerful than ever before!" The Leftover Monster boasted. "And I have created weapons!"

He pulled a garlic trigger on the sausage gun, and little croutons shot out of the muzzle. I have to say; Leftover Monster is really good when it comes to improvising.

The Leftover Monster laughed maniacally as Sonic and Knuckles dodged the crouton bullets. He emptied his cartridge, then simply pulled out a moldy weapon that greatly resembled an RPG. "Goodbye fools!" He laughed, as Sonic and Knuckles stopped and looked at each other, both obviously thinking the same thing: 'Oh, snap'.

"Chaos Spear!"

A bolt of pure energy knocked the weapon from the Leftover Monster's hands, and Shadow the Hedgehog rushed into the kitchen. "I can't leave you two alone for a minute," he complained.

"Cutting it a little close, ain't cha, Shads?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not the one who keeps releasing untold evil on the world," Shadow snapped back.

"I need no weapons to defeat you! I am…AUGH!"

I think all of us were shocked beyond measure when Robo Knuckles appeared in the kitchen, spraying a bottle of air freshener at the Leftover Monster.

"Back!" Robo Knuckles ordered valiantly. "Go 'way!"

"Air freshener! My greatest weakness!" The Leftover Monster cried in terror, as Robo Knuckles slowly but surely forced him back into the fridge. Once sufficiently inside, Sonic dashed forward and shut the door, trapping the monster.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" The Leftover Monster cried as he became locked into the fridge yet again.

Robo Knuckles looked up at the three adults, proudly holding the air freshener. "We beated him!" he said.

"That was smart thinking," Sonic told him.

Robo Knuckles puffed his chest out in pride, then rushed back to the couch asked us, "We can watchies Spongebob now?"

Knuckles watched Robo Knuckles go with a strange look on his face. "He has the makings of a good Guardian," he said finally, turning back towards the workbench.

"Ah-ha!" Tails' voice came, and the fox kit rushed back to us, looking proud. "I figured it out!" he said. "I know how it happened."

"How?" all six of us asked in unison.

"Well, Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow were all toddlerized by the machine that toddlerized the robots," Tails explained. "And Eggman had designed these three with all of your known mental and physical traits so that he could, hopefully, win once in a while. So when the machine hit them, it recognized them as Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles, and changed their physical state to match their organic counterparts. In short, it was a fluke," Tails said, shrugging. "A one-in-a-million chance shot that could probably never be duplicated. And when the robots changed to toddlers…" Tails took a deep breath and said, "Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles…the kids have your DNA. They're not perfect clones, of course, but…well, it's almost like they're your biological children."

"That explains the birthmark," Knuckles mused. "All firstborn males of the current Guardian has it; the Master Emerald puts it there to acknowledge the child as its future Guardian."

"What happen now?" Shadow Android asked, looking up at the adults.

Sonic took a deep breath and picked me up, grinning. "I don't know about the two of you, but I'm going to take care of my kid," he said.

Shadow silently nodded, reaching over to take Shadow Android's hand without a word.

Knuckles stared at Robo Knuckles for a very long time. Then, slowly, he nodded. "You have the makings of a good Guardian in you," he told Robo Knuckles. "And I would be proud to have you as my son."

Robo Knuckles squealed with all the glee he could muster and practically threw himself on Knuckles, who looked quite stunned, as if just realizing what he'd gotten himself into.

Sonic laughed, then he turned his gaze on me. "Come on," he said. "Let's go home."

Later that night, Sonic and I were sitting on the couch in my new house. Zombie was sitting next to us, sound asleep and drooling.

I cuddled up in Sonic's lap and decided now was a good time to explain something that had been on my mind a lot lately.

"Shonic?" I asked, looking up at his friendly green eyes. "I wan'…I wan' be Nick."

"You are Nick," Sonic said.

"An' you is Shonic," I added, just rambling now, trying to convince myself this could all be real. I'd never even dared to hope that anything like this could happen! "An' you keepies me safeted, ever evers, wight?"

"Forever and ever," Sonic promised, crossing his heart and grinning at me.

I grinned back and laid my head on his shoulder, the long day had made me completely exhausted and I fell asleep almost instantly.

But not before I heard Sonic whispering softly, "I'll always protect you, son."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Chapter Notes:

I determined that I must write a chapter for each of the toddlers describing high points in their first year of staying with their new dads. From here on in, Metal Sonic will be exclusively referred to as 'Nick', Shadow Android as 'Andy,' and Metal Knuckles as 'Stevie Joe' or 'Steven.'

* * *

My eyes fluttered open and for a moment I didn't know where I was. That is not a good feeling, and I gasped and sat up straight, feeling something akin to panic. I was in some sort of room, in a big wide bed. There was a window that was letting in light over in the left hand corner. There was a closet to the right of the room, and a cabinet next to the bed. Other than that, the room was bare. Where am I, anyway?

Suddenly, Sonic the Hedgehog stuck his head through the open doorway and memories of the last few days came rushing back.

"Hey, Nicky!" Sonic said, grinning. "I see you've come back to the land of the living. Want some breakfast?"

I nodded eagerly, throwing off the blanket and hopping out of bed. I was still amazed that this was all truly real; I half expected to wake up in my recharging center at any moment to realize that it had all been a delusion and that I was still a robot trapped in Eggman's clutches.

And yet, I also knew that that wouldn't happen, because this really was real.

"Chiwi dogs for bweakfast?" I asked, wrapping my arms around Sonic's middle in a big hug.

Sonic hugged me back and picked me up. "Absolutely! I've already got some chili heating up."

"Yeah!" I cheered, as Sonic carted me off to the kitchen. I could already smell the aroma of Chili dogs. It was heavenly.

Once in the kitchen, Sonic set me down and I scrambled to get in the chair. Over at the microwave, Zombie was opening the microwave and pulling out a plate full of steaming chili dogs.

"Thanks, Zombie," Sonic said appreciatively, taking the plate and handing me a chili dog. "Betcha didn't know Zombie was a master chef, did ya, Nicky?"

Zombie and I looked at each other and I giggled, while Zombie gave me a big, dopey grin. Oh, if Sonic only knew how it had taken me nearly half an hour to teach Zombie to cook chili dogs.

In fact, if I remember correctly, we needed another five minutes to clean out the microwave because his first three attempts had literally blown up inside it.

"What's so funny?" Sonic asked, taking a big bite out of his food.

"Nut'in," I replied, taking a bite out of my own chili dog. It was even better than I had remembered.

The rest of breakfast passed rather uneventfully, as the three of us were far too concerned with gulping down our chili dogs to rattle off our mouths.

Finally, though, I ate the last bite of my chili dog and grinned up at Sonic with a satisfied sigh.

Sonic took one look at me and started laughing. "Oh, man, Nick," he gasped, trying to breathe. "Did ya get any chili in your mouth?"

I cocked my head and caught my reflection in the polished table. My entire mouth was covered with chili. Zombie flew over to me and eagerly started licking chili off of my face.

"Ew!" I cried, trying to push the eager Chao away from me. "No wicking me, Dombies!"

Zombie cackled evilly and started licking me faster. Sonic laughed and rushed over.

"Hold him down, Zombie!" the cobalt blue hedgehog ordered, wiggling his fingers. "I'll tickle him into submission!"

"No!" I shrieked as Sonic started to tickle my stomach. I couldn't stop laughing and kicking as his fingers ran up and down my midsection. "Stop it, Shonic!" I pleaded.

All of a sudden Sonic froze. A strange look crossed his face.

"Wha' is it, Shonic?" I asked him, curious.

"What's with all this Sonic stuff?" he asked me, frowning. "We're a family now, Nick. Call me Dad, OK?"

"Ok, Dad…" I giggled. "I never ever tinked dat I callies you Dad."

"Yeah, well, it's news for me, too," Sonic—Dad grinned at me and started to tickle me again.

"Ah!" I squealed, as Dad tickled me and Zombie flew in and started licking my face again.

"Know what we're going to do today, squirt?" Dad asked me, his emerald green eyes glinting with mischief. "We're going to the Chao gardens to get you a Chao egg to hatch and raise."

He stopped tickling me again, and I sat up and tried to catch my breath. "Weally?" I asked.

"You betcha! All you little kids need a pet Chao. And a banjo, too," Dad replied.

I couldn't help but laugh at that…rather ridiculous statement. "Banjo?" I squealed.

"Hey, don't mock the banjo!" Dad gasped, pretending to be hurt. "I happen to be a world class banjo player. You just wait here."

Dad zoomed out of the kitchen and back in a fraction of a second, returning with a banjo held carefully in his arms. "Zombie! Grab your banjo and we'll show Nicky here how it's done!" he ordered.

Zombie saluted him and raced off, returning with a smaller, Chao sized banjo.

Then, to my amusement and utter amazement, the two of them started a banjo duet. When it was over, Dad put the banjo down and gave an overdramatic bow, and I clapped appreciatively.

"Dat was weally dood," I told him.

"I knew you'd like it," Dad said, a glint of amusement in his eyes. "It' s in your genes, after all. Now go get cleaned up so we can get to the Chao gardens."

"Welcome to the Chao Gardens, where our motto is—Dear Lord, it's you!" The Chao caretaker shrieked when she saw Dad and ducked under her desk. "Be gone, evil ones!" She commanded.

"I've been here before," Dad whispered to me, before turning back to the caretaker. "Look lady, Shads isn't with me today. I just want to go get a Chao egg for my son, Nick, here."

"Oh, no you don't!" The caretaker snapped, jumping up with a spray can labeled 'Hedge be gone.' She sprayed it all over us.

Dad sighed. "Look, can you at least hand us an egg?"

The caretaker grabbed the phone and dialed 911. "Hello, police? It's an emergency! I need you to—"

Dad reached over and unplugged the phone. "If you give us the egg, we'll leave," he promised enticingly.

The caretaker disappeared into the back and came out with a plain, white Chao egg. "There! Take it, and leave," She snarled.

"OK," Dad said agreeably, and the two of us turned and left, with me holding my new Chao egg carefully, and wondering when it would hatch.

It's been a month, and the egg hasn't shown any signs of hatching yet. I had set it on the counter in my room, which had been painted blue (I liked that color) and was now full to overflowing with toys. Right now, I was watching it, kind of bored, and occasionally poking it, hoping that I might convince the baby Chao inside to come out.

It wasn't working.

I sighed loudly and wondered what Dad was doing. There was a knock at the door, and I heard Dad's voice, yell, "Come in!"

I wondered who could be at the door, so I wandered into the living room, holding my favorite stuffed bear, Graham.

I knew who it was before I saw her, however, because a loud, furious sounding voice shrieked over the halls, "SONIC?! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU TWO-TIMING SWINE!?"

"Amy?" Dad called, actually sounding kind of nervous. I watched interestedly as Amy Rose stomped into view and slapped Dad across the face.

"You have a son!" she shrieked. "You have a SON!"

"I heard you the first time, Ames!" Dad replied. "You don't have to deafen me."

Amy slapped him again, harder this time. "You have a SON, you swindler, and you don't even have the decency to tell me yourself! I had to learn it from Tails! TAILS! NOW WHERE IS SHE!?"

"Who?" Dad asked.

"You know who! The MOM, that's who," Amy slapped Dad again. "You pig!"

Uncle Tails rushed into the room, looking out of breath and rather roughed up.

"There is no mom, Amy," Dad started to explain. Amy raised her hand, and Dad cringed. It was the first time I'd ever seen Dad cringe before. "Don't hit me again," he whimpered.

Amy lowered her hand, but she still glowered at him. "Don't try to tell me there's no mom, you no good—"

"Amy, if you'll just let us explain," Uncle Tails interrupted. "You ran out of my workshop before I could tell you the whole story!"

Amy crossed her arms and sat on the couch with a plop. "This had better be good," she warned.

Twenty minutes and a long explanation later, Amy had calmed down considerably.

Looking thoughtful, Amy questioned, "So…he's really Metal Sonic, only turned into an organic baby?"

"Yes," Uncle Tails said.

"And there is no mom?" Amy prompted.

"No. No mom," Dad assured her.

"Well…" Uncle Tails coughed nervously. "That's not true."

"WHAT?!" Amy and Dad asked at the same time.

"That's why I called Amy to my workshop," Uncle Tails explained. "I was going to call Sonic and Nick, but she ran out before I could fully explain everything."

"What is going on, Tails?" Amy asked, sounding exasperated.

"Nick," Uncle Tails turned to me, seemingly ignoring the question. "Do you remember where you three were positioned when the machine went off?"

"Yes," I replied. "Stevie Joe was wight next to it, den was Andy, and I was fardest 'way."

Uncle Tails nodded. "That's what I thought."

"What are you talking about?" Dad asked. "Just tell us, Tails!"

"Well, from the genetic sample I took, I deduced that Nick had genetic irregularities that neither of the other two possessed."

"Irregularities?" Dad asked, sounding worried. "Is Nick in danger, Tails?"

"No, nothing like that," Uncle Tails assured him. "It just didn't make sense. I've spent the last month trying to figure out what was different, and I think I finally figured it out. I think that the machine's power was failing, and with the huge amounts of energy required to give the other two organic bodies with their counterpart's DNA. There wasn't enough left to give Nick a set of DNA in time before it shut down."

"So how do you explain Nick being here, then?" Dad asked.

"Simple. It uh…combined two different sets of DNA so it could change Nick before it shut down. Two different hedgehogs." Uncle Tails gulped and finished. "You two. I'm 99.99 percent sure that the irregular DNA is a match for Amy's."

Amy blinked at him slowly. Then her eyes widened. "You mean…that I'm the mom?" she finally gasped.

"Don't be silly, Ames," Dad scoffed. "Of course you're not Nick's mom. He just happens to have both our DNA in him."

"Uh, Sonic…" Uncle Tails pulled Dad close and whispered something in Dad's ear. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"You mean…" he looked at Uncle Tails and the fox kit nodded. Dad shrieked, "Oh, my gosh, Amy, you ARE the mommy!"

Then, before I knew what hit me, Amy grabbed me and yanked me to her in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, my baby!" she squealed. "You're absolutely perfect!"

"Please Amy, he's only two!" Dad pleaded, grabbing me and prying Amy's arms off of him. "He's too young to be suffocated to death!"

Amy ignored him; she was too busy grinning ear to ear. "Come on, Nick, call me Mommy. Say, 'Mommy.'"

Dad rolled his eyes. "He knows how to talk, Ames," he chided her.

"Oh, Sonikku, he's the most perfect child any couple could hope for!" Amy squealed, grabbing Dad in a bone-crushing hug. "I knew you loved me!"

"What are you talking about?" Dad asked, looking annoyed and confused. "None of this had anything to do with loving you! Because I don't!"

Amy ignored him and kissed him on the lips instead. Dad made a really funny face and started spitting, muttering something that sounded like, 'Ew, girl cooties!'

It was six months before Eggman decided to try to attack Westopolis again. And obviously, Dad refused to take me with him to fight Eggman; so today would be the first day I got to spend the night over at Mom's house.

I was by now quite comfortable thinking of Sonic the Hedgehog as my Dad and Amy Rose as my Mom. The three of us went on lots of outings together. Called 'Child rearing adventures' by Dad and 'Dates' by Mom, the point was that rarely a day went by that I didn't spend at least an hour with both parents, as well as time alone with Mom.

I had just never had to sleep over at her house before. I always slept in my room back home.

Dad dropped me off at Mom's house early in the afternoon, giving me a quick hug and a hurried, "Love ya, Nicky," before zooming off to stop Eggman. Now I was alone with Mom at her house—which was really, really pink—with nothing but my special blanket that I'd gotten at Uncle Tails' house, Graham, my teddy bear, and my Chao egg. (I was worried that it might hatch and that the Chao would be frightened if I wasn't there with it when it did.)

"Bye, Sonikku!" Mom called, waving at him until he was out of sight. Then she turned to me. "Come on in, Nick," she said. "And I'll show you to your room here."

Mom led me through her pink house to my room. It wasn't pink (thank goodness) but was instead a very light shade of yellow.

"I painted it just for you," Mom told me. "Do you like it?"

"Yes," I said dutifully, kind of wishing she'd painted it blue. But yellow was a bit better than pink, and I really had been hoping that I wouldn't have to sleep in a pink room.

Mom told me she was going to make lunch, and left me alone in my new room. I laid Graham and my blanket on the bed, and put my Chao egg on the counter.

"You goin' hatch now?" I asked it. I had made a habit of asking it this question at least two or three times a day. Sometimes I wondered if there was even a Chao in it at all. "'Cuz you would wike it out hewe. My Mom an' Dad are weally nice. Don' you want come out?" I poked it. It wobbled slightly, but other than that, there was nothing.

I sighed sadly and left the room and went to Mom's living room, plopping down on the couch with a sigh. Mom's house is boring.

"I made sandwiches, Nick," Mom called, and I dutifully went to eat.

It's dark in this room.

That's all I can think about. Back at Dad's house, there was a window right near the bed, and just outside it there was a post light, so the room was pretty bright at night. Especially compared to this one, which was pitch black after dark.

Well, not quite pitch black. There was barely enough light for me to see vague outlines of evil beings hiding in my room. Evil beings waiting for me to fall asleep and then make their move and…

"MOOOOOMMMMMM!"

To her credit, a sleepy, robe-wearing Mom stumbled into my room, stubbed her toe on my doorframe, and asked, "What is it, sweetie?"

"Deres bad guys in my woom!" I told her. Mom had that Piko Piko hammer of hers, and if Dad was scared of it, then no bad guy would dare stay in my room with that weapon swinging at their heads!

Mom turned on the light and looked to where I was pointing. Surprisingly, the Bad Guy had morphed into a chair—but I knew he was just playing it safe for when Mom and her mighty hammer left the room.

"It's just a chair, Nick," Mom said sleepily. "Go to sleep, OK, honey?"

"NO!" Didn't she understand? It was WAITING for her to leave! I'm in mortal peril here, Mom! How can you think of sleeping at a time like this? "It getties me!"

Mom sighed. "Wait here, Nick," She said, leaving the room with the light on. I kept a close eye on the shapeshifting bad guy chair—just in case. You never know with evil chairs.

Mom reappeared with a small nightlight, which she plugged up in my wall. "This will keep the bad guys away," She said tiredly. "Now please go to sleep, Nick."

Then, before I could say anything, she turned the light out and walked away. I glanced at the chair, worried that it might morph back to its true, evil form now that Mom was gone, but surprisingly, the nightlight worked, and it remained a chair.

It has now been one year since I had been turned into a toddler. Dad told me yesterday that we were going to have a celebration, called a birthday party. I'd never had a birthday party before, though Robo Knuckles and Shadow Android did try a rather poor attempt at a Creation Day party a few years ago. I really don't remember much about it, 'cept that they got me this awesome donkey dressed like a clown to attend.

The clown really didn't like the party, as I recall, but I had a 'blast.'

Anyway, I woke bright and early, had a short conversation with my still-unhatched Chao Egg, and rushed into the kitchen, where Dad was already up and fixing hash browns on the stove.

"Hey, birthday boy!" Dad called, spooning a liberal amount of hash browns onto a plate which he shoved at me. "You ready for today?"

"Yes!" I said, sitting down to eat. Zombie was already at the table, gobbling down hash browns as fast as Dad could get them on his plate.

"Party's scheduled for high noon, cowboy," Dad chuckled as I practically choked from eating so fast. "So there's plenty of time to eat breakfast."

"NOON?!" I groaned. I'd never make it.

By some miracle, I did, in fact, make it to noon. And finally, the doorbell rang as the first guests started to arrive. Mom was first, with really big present tucked under her arm and trying to balance a chocolate cake with the other. Dad quickly took the cake off her hands, as it looked like she was about to drop it.

"Thanks, Sonic," Mom said gratefully, giving him a huge smile.

"No prob, Ames," Sonic said, grinning back. "It's for Nick, after all."

"Mm-hmm," Mom agreed. She walked into the living room and set the present down, after which I tackled her in a huge hug.

"Hi, Mom!" I greeted her.

"Oh, hi, sweetie," Mom replied, hugging me back. "I hear some big boy is turning three today!"

"Yep!" I told her proudly.

Uncle Tails was right on Mom's…err…tail…carting in his own gift. And behind him was Shadow, Knuckles, and my counterparts, Andy and Stevie Joe!

That was really exciting; Andy and I had occasionally played together over the past year, but I hadn't seen Stevie Joe since Knuckles took him to Angel Island a year ago.

"Stevie Joe!" I shrieked with pleasure, grabbing his arm and hopping up and down.

He gave me a happy smile. "Hi!" he called eagerly. Then he caught Knuckles out of the corner of his eye and somehow, he forced himself to calm down. "Um…I Steven," he told me. He leaned in and whispered, "'Cuz Uckles is a 'poil'port."

"Oh," I replied, nodding. "Ok, Steven. Isn't dis 'citing? It's our birt'day today!"

Andy shook his head. "Father says dat my bir'day is next week, so we both get good parties. Says it be better to get one all by myself den have to share all da time."

Steven gave Knuckles a mean glare and muttered, "'chidnas no have birtdays." That being said, he brightened considerably and started bouncing up and down. "But we c'n still eat CAKE!"

Andy and I giggled at his sudden burst of energy. Steven started running around the living room, chanting, "Cake, cake, cake, cake…"

"Steven," Knuckles called to him sternly. "Guardians don't run around in circles yelling for cake."

Steven wrinkled his nose and stopped running. He tapped his foot impatiently. "We eat cake now?" he asked loudly.

"That sounds like a plan," Dad agreed. "Come in here so we can sing Happy Birthday, Nick!"

We all ran into the kitchen, and everyone sang the Happy Birthday song to me, after which I blew out three lighted candles on top of the cake. Then Dad took a knife and cut us all a piece of cake.

Then, it was time to open my presents!

"Mine firs'! Mine firs'!" Steven yelled, waving his present in the air.

"Steven," Knuckles called warningly.

Steven sighed loudly and, making a really funny face, said, "Open mine firs', pwease. 'Cuz it's bestest." Then he turned to Knuckles and said, in a loud whisper, "I do dat wight?"

"It will do," Knuckles conceded.

I tore open the wrapping paper to reveal a large toy water gun.

"Member how use it?" Steven asked in a highly conspiratorial way. "Uckles wuz wots more fun back den."

I giggled—I did indeed remember the time Eggman had us shooting our parents with water guns. Even if they were modified toddler guns.

"Me next!" Andy pleaded, handing me his. I ripped open the paper to reveal several GI Joe action figures.

"Cool!" I told him.

Tails got me some sort of gadget that was supposed to help me learn to read. I hadn't the heart to tell him that I remembered how to read from before—none of our memories of our previous life had lessened over time. It just served to make the here and now all the more special.

Shadow got me a pair of wrist bands similar to his own. And Knuckles hadn't gotten me anything.

"I don't see why we should reward him simply for existing," Knuckles said.

Dad gave him a disapproving look. "Spoilsport," he said, then he grinned at me. "Hey, it's my turn!" He zoomed off to the closet and returned with a large present. "Open it up, Nicky," he ordered me.

"OK!" I told him, opening up the present. I squealed with pleasure as I saw what it was. "A banjo!"

"Yeah, squirt, your very own banjo!" Dad laughed, ruffling my quills. "Now we can form a trio!"

"One more present," Mom told me, handing me hers. I opened it and gasped.

It was a blue Piko Piko hammer with a big yellow star in the middle.

"Tank you, ever'body!" I cried, giving everyone hugs all around.

All too soon everyone had to go home, and my birthday was over. Or so I thought.

That night, when I went to bed, my Chao egg was missing. I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find it. My cry of distress brought Dad running, and we both looked all over for it, but it was gone. Dad told me that he'd get me another Chao, this time one that had already been hatched, but I didn't want a different Chao. I wanted my Chao egg back, even if it never did hatch.

Dad told me that it was bedtime now, but that we would look again tomorrow.

The next day, I opened my eyes to see a teeny tiny Neutral Chao cuddled up against me.

"Dad!" I cried. He appeared at my bedside a fraction of a second later.

"Hey, Nicky!" he said, laughing. "Looks like you found that missing Chao after all."

The Neutral Chao cuddled against me and cooed. I pet its head and a heart appeared.

"And I think it likes you," Dad finished, stroking it as well. "It's a pretty little girl, I believe. What do you want to name her?"

I stared at my new Chao, thinking intently. "Bwisa," I finally decided.

Dad cocked his head. "Brisa?" he asked.

"Is Spanish," I told him. "Means 'Bweeze.'"

"Breeze," Dad said slowly. "How do you know…never mind, I probably don't want to know. Brisa it is."

Dad ruffled my quills and walked out of the room, allowing me to cuddle Brisa for as long as I wished.

"Bwisa," I whispered, watching her top going into a heart again. If I could, I'd have a heart atop my head too.

I was home. And I was happy.


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Chapter Notes:

This chapter is in Andy's POV, in case you're wondering.

* * *

The trip from Tails' workshop to Shadow the Hedgehog's house was extremely awkward, in my opinion. In fact, I almost wished to be back at Eggman's base as a robot right now, with my counterparts. It wasn't so bad for Metal Sonic—No, he's Nick now, I reminded myself. But as I was saying, I'm sure splitting up wasn't as hard on him as it was for me. He knew what it was to be all by himself, and so did Robo Knuckles—err, Stevie Joe. Me, I'd had thousands of Shadow Android counterparts with me since I came out of the assembly, and even after the rest had been shut down I was always with Nick and Stevie Joe.

This was quite literally the first time I was ever on my own, because Shadow doesn't count. I can't quite seem to think of him sticking around all that often.

The ebony furred hedgehog led me to a small apartment and let me inside. He picked me up inside the doorway and took me over to his couch, where sat me down.

"Sit," he told me. It was the first thing he'd said to me since we'd left Tails' workshop. Shadow backed up slowly, not taking his eyes off of me, as if he was worried that I'd bounce away the instant he took his eyes off of me. "Sit," he warned me again, before turning and disappearing.

I heard several whooshing sounds, as well as something glass breaking and a muffled noise that sounded like something I'd get into trouble for repeating.

Then, I quite distinctively heard Shadow mutter, "Stupid closet—shut already!" There was a soft click as a door shut, and Shadow came back into the living room and his eyes locked onto mine. They widened considerably and if I didn't know any better, I would think he was actually shocked to see me sitting still.

He didn't say anything, however, he simply walked into the kitchen and started making something.

You know, it's getting quite hard to keep sitting still like this. My legs are starting to itch. And besides, I can just barely see something hiding under the cushion at the other end of the couch. It looks interesting.

Shadow poked his head into the living room. "I said don't move," he told me.

"I wasn'!" I protested.

"You were thinking it," Shadow replied dryly. "I can see it in your smug little face." Then he disappeared into the kitchen again.

By and by, he emerged with three baloney sandwiches and an opened bag of chips. He handed me a sandwich and looked over into a room off to the side. "Maria, lunch," he called.

A black Dark Chao with purple batwings emerged from the room and cuddled against Shadow's leg, purring. Then, she flew to the couch and saw me for the first time. Our eyes locked and we both sent a non-verbal message that the other understood.

Maria and I instantly hated each other's guts.

I knew it was only a matter of time before things between me and Maria came to a head; after all, I'd despised her ever since that time when I went to toddlerize Shadow and she started to eat me. As for her, she simply didn't like the fact that I showed up to ruin her perfect little life with Shadow.

With all that animosity in the air, it was only a matter of time before we went toe-to-toe. In fact, we went toe-to-toe with each other before dinnertime.

And to be perfectly honest, Maria started it.

You see, I was sitting and completely minding my own business when she flew over to me and bit me on the nose! You know I could not take that from the little freak. I reached up, grabbed her, and threw her as hard as I could right into a vase. It broke almost instantly and Maria jumped up, snarling as she tackled me. I rolled off the couch, grabbing at the rabid Chao with both arms as I tried to kill her before she killed me.

Shadow was on us both in an instant. And though I admit I was a bit preoccupied at the time, I do think he seemed a bit relieved, as if he were thinking to himself 'Hey, I know how to handle this now!'

"That's enough," Shadow ordered, trying to separate us. But Maria wasn't stopping her attack, and I sure as heck wasn't letting go of her!

We were really getting into it to, she was chewing up my arm and I was kicking her stomach, when the sound of a gunshot brought us out of our 'competition.'

Wide-eyed, we both turned to see Shadow, with a smoking 9 millimeter pistol pointed at the ceiling.

"Now," he said, pausing as part of the ceiling fell on his head. "I want you two to SIT. DOWN. NOW."

The two of us hurriedly rushed to the couch. I was sort of wondering what would happen now; past experience told me it wasn't a good idea to get Shadow teed.

Before he could do or say anything else, however, someone pounded on the door. Shadow sighed, holstered his weapon, and marched to the door, opening it. Someone—I wasn't able to tell who or what it was—handed him a piece of paper, which he read with obvious disbelief.

"You're evicting me?" he asked. "What for?"

Twenty minutes later I was standing in front of the house as dusk started to come on watching Shadow pound on the door. "OMEGA!" He yelled. "OPEN THE DANG DOOR ALREADY! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Finally, the door opened, and the hugest robot I'd ever seen in my life looked down at Shadow. "Identification: Shadow the Hedgehog. For what purpose have you decided to bust the door down on my garage?"

"Look, Omega, I got kicked out of my apartment and I need a place for them to sleep," Shadow said, motioning to us.

Omega looked directly at me. "Identifying: Unknown anthromorphic hedgehog. Likely age estimated at two years four days 16 hours forty-nine minutes twenty-seven seconds."

"Will you let us in?" Shadow asked, wanting to get to the point.

Omega turned his attention back to Shadow. "Processing… Unit named Shadow the Hedgehog has proved trustworthy. It is unlikely that Shadow would bring potential threats here." There was another pause. " … Affirmative. You may enter."

Shadow gave an exasperated sigh and herded Maria and myself into Omega's garage. For that's exactly what it was: A large garage, with a bed stashed in the far end of the wall.

"I have not removed your sleeping unit from your last visit. You seem to get evicted from quite a few apartments, Shadow."

Shadow gave Omega a long, unfriendly glare and threw a backpack full of useful items from the apartment on the bed. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Processing…the time is now 8:23."

Shadow nodded. "Good. You," he pointed at me, then at the bed. "Get in. Go to sleep."

I obediently climbed into the bed and closed my eyes. I wasn't sleepy. And I felt a familiar feeling. Uh-oh.

I sat up, much to Shadow's obvious annoyance. "I gotta go potty," I told him. "Weally bad."

Shadow blinked. "…Why didn't you go before we left the apartment?" he finally asked.

"I didn' have ta," I explained.

Shadow finally sighed loudly and pointed to a doorway on the other end of the garage. I hopped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom. And this time, I didn't wet myself! Alright!

"Are you done now?" Shadow asked as I rushed back out of the bathroom and hopped back into bed.

I nodded. "Saddo, I tirsty," I said.

Shadow glared at me. "Humph," he replied, but he went and got me a glass of water anyway. I drank it eagerly. "Now go to sleep." he ordered.

I lay down obediently and closed my eyes. I didn't think I would ever get to sleep, though…

Shadow the Hedgehog stared at the sleeping form in the bed in front of him. "I can't do this," he finally said.

"You cannot do what?" Omega asked.

"This," Shadow nodded towards the toddler in front of him. "I…I don't know what I was thinking. I can't care for a child. I have no idea how to watch a child. The last time I cared for kids I nearly killed them all. I never should have…" Shadow trailed off, too lost in his own thoughts to continue.

Omega was silent for a long minute, then he said, "Search completed."

Shadow blinked and stared at Omega, as if just realizing he was there. Granted, Omega had never seen his friend so…distracted, and dare he suggest…frightened, before. Still, it would not stop him from stating the facts that Shadow most likely needed to hear.

"I have just run a proper search on childcare," Omega stated. "For a process that produced 100 positive results."

"And?" Shadow prompted, when Omega failed to continue.

"And the results are negative. It seems that no one truly knows how to care for a child. For one thing, each child is an individual; what works with one child might not necessarily be conductive for another. It seems that one is supposed to just muddle through the best one can and hope for the best."

Shadow gave Omega a wry smirk. "You're telling me to wing it and see what happens?"

"That would seem to be the appropriate response to such a situation," Omega agreed.

Shadow sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe," he admitted. "But I'm going to need your support," he continued, turning to Maria. "I can't have you going off like that again, understood?"

Maria did appear to be slightly ashamed of her behavior of earlier, and she nodded.

"Good," Shadow said. His bout with uncertainty was over; the hedgehog was now back to his normal, lovable self. "Go to bed," he told his Chao curtly, as he opened a sleeping mattress and smoothed it out. He lay down and was asleep almost instantly.

I shot up in bed, looking around wildly. What—where? I didn't remember what had terrified me so; I could only remember feeling terrified and a swiftly fading image of a laughing giant…something. The longer I was awake, the less I could remember. I could only remember that it was decidedly unpleasant.

This was not a new experience for me. I had had these…interruptions in the recharging period…long before I had been toddlerized. I never could remember why I would wake frightened, I just would.

Before, I would be confronted by Metal Sonic and Robo Knuckles, the former stating that I must be experiencing some memory malfunction and to continue recharging. He'd promise to give me a full scan the next day.

The scans had never showed any irregularities; but Metal Sonic would insist I take them anyway, just to make sure.

For his own part, Robo Knuckles would do something stupid and idiotic and I'd get so annoyed with him that I forgot all about it.

But now, in a real sense, Robo Knuckles and Metal Sonic didn't exist anymore. And the beings who had replaced them, Nick and Stevie Joe, were miles away and didn't know I was still experiencing these interruptions.

I was alone. And the thought was unbearable.

Two weeks later…

The empty garage wasn't so empty anymore. And I was more comfortable with thinking of it as my home, instead of just a place I could sleep at night.

The past two weeks had seen another bed added to the garage, as well as some chairs, a television set, a fridge, and a table. Omega had made it quite clear that he didn't wish for Shadow to look for another apartment; not when it was just as likely that the hedgehog would get kicked out again and come running back. It was more logical to simply make a home here, the robot explained.

Maria doesn't seem as…evil…as she did when I first came to live with Shadow. She still gives me death glares and mandatory warning hisses, but she's never outright attacked me again.

I spend quite a bit time sitting at the table and coloring. I have found that I enjoy coloring pictures, or even drawing pictures of my own. It's soothing, coloring and drawing.

I found I was somewhat right about Shadow staying; his job with GUN often caused him to have to go off on top secret missions at all hours of the day or night. Once he was gone for two days; but he was always back here the instant the job was complete, and when he was gone for more than a few hours he always called me and Omega periodically, just to make sure everything was OK.

And you know, by now I had the impression that if he thought I was ever in the slightest jeopardy, he'd drop whatever he was doing and rush right back here, even if doing so meant the whole world would come crumbling into dust.

All in all, I feel pretty content here. My only complaint is that the sleep interruptions—called nightmares, as I've learned—have only intensified. They seem to be waking me up more often, and I seem more frightened each time. But I can never remember what I was frightened about.

I hope they will go away soon. It's getting harder and harder to put up with them.

One month after I was changed into a toddler, my nightmares became much worse. So much worse, that I was unable to keep them a secret.

Dark, maniacal laughter echoed all around me as I ran through a dark, empty corridor, my heart pumping and my whole body trembling with terror and exhaustion. I don't dare look back; it might be back there. It's coming; I know it is! If I turn to look it would surely catch me… I can hear it, coming closer and closer…

"Andy!"

It's taunting me, I can tell. Something grabs me and pulls me down even as I scream, but there is nobody there to answer. I'm all alone, except for my assailant.

I'm alone…

"Andy! Wake up!"

My eyes shot open and I took a deep, ragged breath. Someone was shaking me fiercely; and I can feel tears running down my face.

"Oh, thank God," I can just see the outline of Shadow, looking relieved. "Are you alright, Andy? You were screaming in your sleep."

I took a few more ragged breaths. "Okies," I finally told him. "Jus' had bad dweam."

"That was one heck of a dream," Shadow said dryly. "What happened?"

Already the dream was fading; I was having trouble recalling it. "Don' member," I finally admit. "But havin' it ever' nigh'."

Shadow's eyes widened in shock. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"Dunno," I said. "Havin' it ever' nigh' even 'fore turned into baby. Scaries me, dunno why."

"Oh, Andy," Shadow moaned, picking me up and rocking me back and forth. Shadow didn't usually show affection; but this effort was greatly appreciated. I was so sick of having this dream; so sick of feeling scared and alone…

I clutched Shadow to me and buried my head in his chest. "No more awones," I whimpered. "No wants be awone."

Shadow looked stricken; I instantly kicked myself mentally. I hadn't meant to say that aloud. I knew Shadow felt guilty about having to leave me so often because of his job; I had overheard him tell Omega.

"I'm sorry, Andy," he said. "I never…I didn't mean to leave you alone."

I shook my head rapidly. "No, no, not dats," I said quickly. "No…awone 'fores. Aways awone."

Now Shadow just looked confused. "I don't understand."

I struggled to find words that would explain my meaning to him. "I no wike utter wobots. Wuz 'posed be wots of mes. Wots and wots."

Shadow closed his eyes, apparently remembering the multitudes of Shadow Androids he had come across. He nodded, silently encouraging me to continue.

"Den utter mes go bye-bye. No more wots of mes. Just me. An' no wike utter wobots dere was den. Was diffewent. Was awone." As I told Shadow something I'd never dared to tell any other being before, I realized something. "Dat when I getties first bad dweam. When was awone wit' no more wots of mes."

"Do you remember anything about the dream?" Shadow asked.

I closed my eyes and struggled to remember. "Wunning. Scaries. Bad, bad ting is chasing me. And all awone. No one helpies me. Aways awone."

I couldn't go on anymore, I broke down in deep, ragged sobs. Shadow tightened his grip on me. "Not anymore," he whispered in my ear.

I blinked up at him in surprise. "What mean?"

Shadow gave me a small smirk and gently wiped tears from my face. "I'm here, Andy. And if I ever find out that anything bad ever starts to chase you…" a dark look crossed his face and he seemed to stare off into the distance. "…I'll be right there to blow it's head off. OK?"

"Weally?" I asked. "Why you do dat?"

Shadow looked down at me, and all at once he seemed both gentle and wise. "Because all fathers want to protect their sons."

I went to sleep in his arms that night. And I have never had that nightmare again.

Six months have passed, and I have adjusted quite nicely to my new life. My Father, Shadow, got promoted to a desk job. I had found out that GUN had offered him the promotion several times before; but he'd always turned them down because he could think of no worse fate than to be trapped behind a desk all day. The only reason he took it now was so that he could be home with me more often.

Plus, the extra money couldn't hurt.

Right now, the only hindrance on my happiness is Maria the Dark Chao from Heck. She still hates my guts, and I'm still not all that fond of hers.

I yawned and woke up bright and early, ready and eager to start a new day. I hopped out of bed and raced over to our kitchen area. A stove, a sink and a microwave had been installed in the last six months. But I was interested in the cereal sitting on the kitchen table. I took it and a paper bowl and poured myself some breakfast, which I snacked on without milk. I didn't like milk in my cereal, it made it taste weird.

Maria flew into the kitchen area and gave me her customary morning warning hiss, then she settled down and started chewing on a piece of bread. I stuck my tongue out at her, the little demoness.

Omega entered the kitchen, remarking about how late Father was sleeping in, or something like that, Maria and I were too busy silently insulting each other to pay much attention.

I did catch his parting message: "I am in need of more fueling rods for my recharging periods. Andy, it is imperative that you wake Shadow up at nine thirty so he can get to work on time."

"OK," I said, before going back to making faces at Maria the Evil One.

Omega left the house, and I finished breakfast. At nine thirty, I raced over to Father's bed and hopped on. "Wakey ups, Father!" I called. "Time goes work!"

Father didn't answer me; it seemed he was breathing more rapidly than normal.

"Father?" I asked, reaching up and touching him. I yanked my hand back; he was hot! "Father! Wake up!" I shrieked, genuinely frightened now. "Mawia! Mawia, father won't wake up!"

Maria was at my side in a fraction of a second, cooing and trying to coax Father up. With our combined coaxing, he finally moaned slightly and his eyes opened slightly.

"What…" he broke off into a fit of coughing and had to regain his breath before continuing, "…time is it?" His voice sounded harsh and cracked; not at all like it should be. For some reason, hearing it made me feel worse than before.

"Father," I grabbed his arm and squeezed it. "Wha's wong? You no wakies up an' you is hot, hot, hot, an' you coughin'! You is sick?"

Father stared at me incomprehensively; his eyes seemed to glaze over. After a second he closed them and lapsed back into unconsciousness.

"Mawia, wha's we do?" I asked. "Father's sick. How we makies him betters?"

Maria looked thoughtful, then her eyes lit up and she flew to me. She squeaked and pointed at the bookshelf where Father kept all his big books.

"Books?" I asked. "You tink dat a book'll tell us how to make Father better?"

Maria nodded eagerly, trying to nudge me towards the books.

"Wet's see!" I said, rushing to the books and looking at them. "Dat one!" I told her finally, pointing to a book that was too high for me to reach. "Dat one's bout wha's doin' for sick pekals!"

Maria eagerly flew to the book and took it from the shelf, dropping it at my feet. I opened it up and looked through it. "Um…wook, dis one wooks wike it. Callies 'cold.' Says it makies you sickies with hot heads an' coughin'. Says you needs sweep wots cuz of it. Also says it makies you achy. Is Father achy?"

Maria shrugged; we really didn't know if Father was achy or not. I thought about it and decided he must be, because he had all the other symptoms. "It says we gotta gets him owange 'uice an' chicken soup. We gots owange 'uice?"

Maria flew to the fridge and opened it. She chirped eagerly and pointed to a half-carton of orange juice.

"Okies, I getties him da owange 'uice, an' you make chicken soup, 'cuz I no is wowed use stove," I said. Maria nodded, eager to do whatever it took to make Father better. I poured a glass of orange juice—only I missed a little and spilled some. But I would clean it up later; Father's life was at stake!

Maria looked in the fridge again and started shrieking in horror. I rushed over to see what was the matter.

"Gots no chicken?" I asked, looking around. All we had was some leftover hot dogs. Hot dogs were like chicken, weren't they?

Maria wasn't at all sure if she could make Hot Dog Soup, but if it would help Father she was willing to give it a shot.

Four minutes later, she determined that she couldn't make Hot Dog Soup, because the pot of soup on the stove spontaneously combusted. Maria shrieked, panicking, and looked around for something to put out the flames. Her eyes fell on the glass of orange juice and she instinctively grabbed it and threw it on the flaming soup. It certainly put the fire out; but that had been the last of the orange juice.

Maria and I gave each other a worried look and then rushed to the pot.

"It no wook dat burned," I said. "An' da owange 'uice is inside it, wight? So…it still work, wight?"

Maria looked hopeful as she spooned some soup into a bowl; it had to work. Now the only question was how to get our food into Father's stomach where it could properly conduct its healing properties.

It was at this moment that Omega got back home. "What has happened here?" he asked, looking at the semi-demolished house.

I explained everything, and he went from being annoyed with us to concerned for Father in a second. He swiftly went to Father's bedside and scanned him with his sensors.

"Scanning…genetic anomaly found. Cause unknown." he droned. Then he turned to us. "Do not worry. I will call Tails; and he will discover the problem."

Thankfully, Tails was able to determine what was wrong with Father. He said his body was experiencing a delayed reaction to being changed from an adult to a toddler and back. But the fox kit worked very hard and found a way fix it. He assured us that Father would be back to normal in a few days.

I was just happy that Father was awake now, and that he didn't feel hot. But for some reason he didn't seem too thrilled when Maria and I suggested he try some Hot Dog and Orange Juice Soup to aid the healing process.

Today, I turn three years old. This was the date Father had picked for my birthday. A sad thing happened though: Nick got a cold (a real one) and couldn't come. And Steven had given me my present at Nick's party and had said that Knuckles stated that it would be impossible to leave Angel Island twice in such a short period of time. So my party just consisted of myself, Father, Omega, and Maria.

But I got another cake almost all to myself, so that made me feel a little bit better. Sonic had stopped by earlier that day to drop off Nick's present, and now I was opening my gifts up. Father got me a genuine art set, with an easel and water paints. Nick had gotten me a coloring book. Steven had gotten me a water gun, just like the one he'd gotten for Nick. And Omega got me a cookbook—just in case I decided to grace the world with my culinary talents again.

I thanked everyone and hugged them, and a surprising thing happened—Maria came over to me and hugged my leg, cooing. A surefire sign that all was forgiven and that she wanted to be friends. I hugged her back, to accept the offer.

This is my family. And I'm no longer alone.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Chapter Notes:

Hi, here I am with Steven's chapter. It's not as long as the other two, but Steven has a really short attention span, so he really couldn't stand to narrate all that long. One thing you MUST know for this chapter to make sense: When he was Metal Knuckles, he had a ton of personality glitches. Now that he's Steven, and organic, the glitches have become a condition: Steven has ADHD. It stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That basically means he has trouble focusing, blurts out random comments, can't sit still, and forgets things, among some other symptoms, such as a volatile temper.

* * *

My name is Steven and I've just realized that I have been sent to a floating jail with the worst warden in the history of warden history.

I had thought it was a good thing that Knuckles the Echidna had decided he liked me enough to take me home with him; I was wrong. I was horribly, horribly wrong.

You see, as soon as Tails dropped us off on Angel Island, Knuckles started laying out ground rules. Ich, what part of that doesn't sound remotely unappealing?

"This is Angel Island, Steven—" he started.

"Stevie Joe," I interrupted him.

Knuckles gave me a disapproving glare. "Stevie Joe is a childish moniker; Steven is much more befitting a future Guardian," he told me, and then went on, as if that settled the matter. "As I was telling you, Steven, if you are indeed to take my place as Guardian of the Master Emerald, you will need to be physically and mentally trained. It is much too late to begin now; but tomorrow I will familiarize you with the island and the many traps to keep out intruders. For now—"

Ooh, a butterfly! It's so pretty, with glittery yellow wings flapping in the wind. I love wind. It's so…windy. Ooh, I love that movie, you know, with that girl Wendy in it? I think it's called…Peter Pan, that's it. It has a pirate in it. I saw a movie about pirates once, Johnny Depp starred in it; he was the guy who played Willie Wonka on the Chocolate movie. Mm, I wish I had some chocolate…

"Steven!" Knuckles' voice broke into my thoughts and I blinked at him. "You were not listening," the red echidna told me sternly.

"Was too," I contradicted.

"No, you were doing the shuffle and humming the theme from 'Happy Days,'" Knuckles insisted, crossing his arms.

Happy Days? I like Fonzie. Isn't it weird how Fonzie sounds like Fozzie? I love Muppets!

"Steven!" Knuckles called sternly, bringing my thoughts back into focus. He sighed, looking slightly frustrated. "You will not be able to become a Guardian if you do not learn to focus."

"Wike camwa?" I asked. "I gotted a camwa once, it was wed, wike an apple. You wike apples?"

Knuckles sighed loudly and took my hand. "Stop bouncing," he ordered, leading me to my new home.

Guess what? Knuckles lives in a cave! A REAL cave! How cool is that?

It would have been cooler if he didn't insist that I lie down, hold still, and go to sleep instead of exploring. It's so hard to hold still. And I don't want to sleep! I didn't want to sleep ever since I had become a toddler; I didn't like recharging when I was a robot. Heck it was a total 18 hours I could use to party when all the weaklings had thrown in the towel! I don't need sleep! I get my energy from the sun's rays! Like Superman! Up, Up, and Adventure is Out There!

"Steven!" Knuckles snapped, having come over to check up on me. "Stop trying to climb up the rock formation and go to sleep!"

"Awww," I moaned, climbing back into bed again. I hate going to bed. I also hate lima beans. Yuck.

I have no idea how long it's been, because apparently, Echidnas don't keep time. Knuckles states that 'all we need is the island. How the rest of the world…'and I don't remember the rest. I just remember noticing that little dangly thing at the back of his throat was flapping. That reminded me that I had seen a little bird the other day and I asked Knuckles how long birds live.

By the long silence and stunned look on his face, I got the impression that we weren't talking about birds, but I can't really remember all of the conversation, so I wouldn't know.

I do know that Knuckles' face looked really purple. I didn't know Echidnas could turn purple. He looks like Barney the Dinosaur. Man, that guy creeps me out.

Oh, that reminded me, I'd been meaning to ask… "Uckies?"

"What is it, Steven?" Knuckles asked.

"You wike Tim Awwin?"

It's strange; I didn't think grown Echidnas cried.

I hate training. It's long, boring, and I'm not very good at it. I hated all of it; but most of all, I hated going with Knuckles to inspect the traps, which we did like, every day. Seriously, has this guy got nothing better to do?

Obviously not, because he doesn't have a TV set, which I think we really, really need. But Knuckles said that everything we need is on the island.

"Evyting?" I asked him.

"That is correct," Knuckles replied.

"Wha' bout baker hitters?"

Knuckles blinked. "What?"

"Baker hitters. To whap da bakers unner the bed."

"What are you…there aren't any bakers under the bed," Knuckles told me.

"You wook?"

"No."

"Then how you know there no baker unner you bed?" I asked, interested in his reply.

"I just do!" Knuckles replied.

I digested this information and asked, "You wike ice cweam?"

You know, grown Echidnas really do cry a lot.

What was I talking about? Oh, right, training. Checking the traps. Boring.

It wouldn't be so bad if he had cool traps, like a pit full of piranha or a big rock like in that Indiana Jones movie. I love that music, don't you? Anyway, Knuckles' traps were boring. And they were all alike.

And after a while of doing it himself and going into long, boring, talks about…something…today he told me to do it.

"Me?" I squeaked.

"Yes," Knuckles replied, crossing his arms. "I've spent the last few days telling you everything you need to know and showing you the proper procedures several times, so you should be able to do this quite easily."

Oh…so that was what that annoying droning sound he kept making was. I had been too busy thinking about how the moss felt funny on my toes, and other important things like that, so I really didn't remember much about it.

I hopped to the trap, which was like, a spring-loaded thingamajig, and reached over and poked it. "Dat wight?" I asked.

"Steven," Knuckles' eyes narrowed dangerously. "You were paying attention to my lectures, weren't you?"

"'Bout manaise?" I guessed.

"No. About the traps."

"Fish swim in ocean," I told him. I really hadn't been thinking about fish, or anything else for that matter; it just sorta blurted out all by itself. Like caramel Kool-Aid. I wish Kool-Aid came in a caramel flavor.

What was I doing here again?

"Steven!" Knuckles sounded frustrated. "The trap."

Ooh, right, the trap. Well, there's a little pushy thing on the side. I bent over and poked it.

"No, Steven, not that button!" Knuckles yelled, grabbing me and yanking me to the side as a large rock fell and smashed into the ground where I'd been standing moments before.

Knuckles gave me a reproachful look; and I glared at the rock, feeling furious that it had ruined my trap-checking.

"Stupi WOCK!" I screamed, wiggling out of Knuckles' grasp and kicking the rock with all my might. A tremendous pain welled up in my foot and I heard a loud crack! "OW!" I yelled, grabbing my foot and falling to the ground.

Knuckles leaned over and inspected my foot. "You broke it," he said simply.

"I goin' DIE!?" I gasped.

"No. But you will have to stay in the cave and **be still** while it heals," Knuckles told me, picking me up and carrying me back into our cave. Of course you all know that the blame for this rests solely on the rock.

Stupid rock.

I still don't know how much time has passed; only that it has been enough time for my foot to heal completely. I almost died of boredom in that cave. Nothing to do, and it was sooooooo boring, and Knuckles snores like a bloated walrus with hiccups.

Actually, the snoring was fun to watch, for about four minutes. Then I was bored. Bored, bored, bored. And to make it worse, if I so much as twitched my nose, Knuckles would give me a long lecture about how sitting still is imperative to monkey moose. Or maybe he said something else, and I started thinking about monkey moose. I don't really remember.

But now it's all over, and Knuckles is taking me to actually see the Master Emerald for the first time today. The Emerald is all he talks about. He'd never actually let me see it before.

He escorted me into the cavern and I gazed at the Master Emerald for the first time.

"It's a big wock," I blurted out without thinking.

Knuckles stiffened slightly. "The Master Emerald is not a rock," he said, going into Super Lecture Knuckles mode. "It's an extraordinarily powerful gem capable of—"

"Would wook pwettier wi' gwitter on it," I continued, not really thinking about anything. Just…I don't know. Not thinking. "C'n I put gwitter on it?"

Knuckles looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "NO, you cannot put glitter on the Master Emerald!" he practically yelled at me. Then he started lecturing me again. Ooh, look, there's an inchworm in this cavern!

Yet another boring day had come and Knuckles had left early to hunt down breakfast. Yesterday I got to go to Nick's cool party, but now it was over, and according to Knuckles, Echidnas don't have birthdays.

Echidnas are boring. I wish I was a walrus. I bet walruses have birthdays.

I'm going outside.

It was a really pretty day out here, and I'd never been anywhere on this island unsupervised, and look, there's that butterfly!

Without hesitating to think about what would happen if Knuckles got back before I did, a raced off, chasing the pretty butterfly all across the island. But eventually it flew off and I couldn't chase it anymore. I looked around and noticed that I heard Knuckles really close by, and it sounded like he was fighting someone.

Ok, this was way too tempting to pass up. I peeked through some bushes and saw Knuckles fighting a white bat who I remembered called herself Rouge.

"Get off my island, thief!" Knuckles yelled, throwing a punch at her that she easily dodged. "And stay away from the Master Emerald!"

"That emerald is mine!" Rouge replied. "All the jewels of the world are mine!"

I yanked my head back and wondered what to do. Rouge wanted the Master Emerald, and I'm pretty sure Knuckles said we had to guard the Master Emerald.

Or maybe we were supposed to guard plastic Jell-o molds….no, I'm pretty sure it was the Master Emerald.

Suddenly, I thought of a great way to keep the Emerald away from Rouge. I clapped my hands with delight and raced off to get the Emerald, skipping half the way and jumping up and down whenever the mood struck me.

Knuckles dodged one of Rouge's deadly kicks and tried to punch her back. She swiftly leaned back and kicked out again, landing a lucky shot that caught Knuckles across the chin. The Echidna fell swiftly, and he hit his head on something hard…

…He moaned and opened his eyes. They widened as he remembered what happened. He jumped up and growled. Rouge was gone. How long had he been out? He quickly raced to the cavern where the Master Emerald was kept, hoping he was not too late.

The cavern was empty. The thief had stolen the Emerald!

"Uckles?"

Knuckles whirled to see a bright-eyed Steven looking up at him proudly.

"Why are you here?" Knuckles asked. "You are supposed to be at the cave. Go back now; I've got to get the Master Emerald back."

Steven cocked his head, grinning. "Wouge no gottin' Mas'er Wock," he said.

"It's not a rock," Knuckles contradicted him instinctively.

Steven's smile vanished for a second; and his green eyes flashed with his somewhat volatile temper, but the fury was gone in a second and he grinned again. "I hides it. She go bye-bye an' mads cuz she no finds it, cuz I hides it."

"You…hid it?" Knuckles asked, surprise.

Steven rushed over to a mound of dirt and brushed some aside. A bright green glow showed from underneath. "See?" he asked, sounding somewhat proud of himself.

Knuckles stared at the boy for a while, then he gave a single nod of approval. "That was quick thinking. You might turn into a Guardian yet."

Steven grinned big, then his eyes got a vacant expression that Knuckles was all-too-familiar with. The Echidna suddenly shot out of the cave with a burst of energy. The source of Steven's seemingly endless energy was a constant mystery to Knuckles. But now, the elder Echidna simply walked to the Master Emerald and carefully brushed all the dirt off of it.

But wait…it was different somehow…Knuckles leaned in close and realized what the problem was.

All throughout the Island, the angry voice of Knuckles the Echidna could be heard yelling, "STEVEN! YOU PUT GLITTER ON THE MASTER EMERALD!? WHERE DID YOU EVEN **GET** GLITTER ON THIS ISLAND!?"


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Chapter Notes:

Hey, READ THIS FIRST!

For the purposes of my story, from here it has been four years after the whole toddlerizing incident. The machine turns every person it zaps into two-year-olds, so that means that the kids are now the biological equivalent of six-year-old boys. I wished to up their ages for a number of reasons. If you want to see more 'toddler metals' then I'm more than willing to write about them, but in a different fic. In this one, they are now six.

* * *

Four Years Later…

I hate grade school.

And I really, really, really hate Principle Omochao. He's the most annoying little twit on the face of the universe. And worst of all, this is the third time this year I've been to see the little creep.

And it's the first week of school.

"Nick, so nice to see you again," said the Principle's secretary as I forlornly pushed open the door to the Principal's office. "Have a seat in your favorite chair. I'm thinking about getting it monogrammed for you."

In case you're wondering, I'm not so fond of the secretary, either.

After what finally seemed like an eternity, the door opened again and my parents half-rushed, half-fell into the room, both looking unhappy and extremely disappointed in me.

"Nick," Dad said sternly, crossing his arms. "What's this I hear about you beating up another kid?"

"I didn't beat him," I protested. "Much," I added under my breath.

"Nick," Dad warned in his 'watch it, buster, you're in enough trouble already' voice.

"It's not my fault!" I whined. "That moron Jack and his pack of royal kiss-ups were getting on Andy's case for being short again! They're freaking BULLIES and they're never in here!"

My best friend, Andy the Hedgehog, had unfortunately inherited just enough of Shadow's DNA to make growing a royal pain in the behind for him. He was growing into adulthood, luckily, he was just doing it very slowly.

Making him the only six-year-old in school who looked like he should still be in Pre-K. And that made him Prime Target Number 1 for all the "wonderful" middle schoolers who acted like they should still be in Pre-K.

Andy was more than capable of taking care of himself; I just made it a point to ensure that he didn't have too. Which is sort of why I'm sitting in the principal's office again with a black eye and a threat of suspension. Which might not be so bad.

"What happened?" Dad asked, sounding not at all sympathetic. "I had a talk with Andy before I came here, and he doesn't seem to remember any moron Jacks and their pack of royal kiss-ups messing with him."

"Well, they didn't diss him to his face," I replied sheepishly. "They were just making fun of him when he wasn't around to hear it, because they knew very well he'd kick their butts from sun-up to sun-down if he did."

"OK, that's a really old phrase," Dad told me. "You can't say diss and kick butts from sun-up to sun-down in the same sentence."

"Sonic, you're getting off the subject here," Mom said, elbowing him in the ribs.

"What?" Dad asked defensively. "I'm just trying to help!"

Mom gave Dad a disapproving glance and turned back to me. "Nick, sweetie," she said gently. "I know it must not have been very pleasant to have to hear other boys making fun of Andy. But that didn't mean that you had to react the way you did."

"Well, somebody needed to punch him in the mouth," I replied. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dad turn to the wall so I wouldn't see him start to snicker. Mom gave him another disapproving glace and sighed.

The secretary looked up to the three of us. "Mr. Hedgehog and Ms. Rose? The principle is ready to see you."

The trip to the office did not go well. Principal Omochao was all for expelling me then and there, and only Dad's fevered insistence that he'd see that it wouldn't happen again kept me in the stupid school that I didn't want to be in anyway.

Worse, Mom and Dad decided to continue their little 'conversation' with me once we got home.

"Honestly, Nick, I don't see why you think you need to settle everything with violence," Mom said, sighing. "I had really hoped we'd taught you better than that."

Oh, please. Not the you've-betrayed-everything-we've-ever-taught-you card. That's the fifth time she's used that this month!

"I know violence doesn't solve everything," I told her. "But have either of you ever heard of a little thing called 'sticking up for your friends?'"

"Sure," Dad admitted. "And have you ever heard of a little thing called 'you're grounded for two months starting right now'?"

Officially. The. Worst. Day. Ever.

I stand corrected. Getting into a fight and getting grounded isn't the worst day ever; being grounded the next Saturday is. Although I figure they're pretty close together.

But being trapped in your room on one of the nicest Saturdays of the year so far is definitely the winner in the 'worst day ever' contest. It's the most tedious and boring thing I've ever done, and that includes garbage duty on Eggman's base.

It didn't help that Dad had made it a point to drag anything even remotely interesting out of my room and stashed into the attic. That means games, musical instruments, heck, he even took my tropical fish tank with no fish. (Dad says fish are impractical because they die five hours after you take them home and then you have to have a funeral by flushing them down the toilet, and you've wasted five hours, 25 bucks, and blocked the water pipes. So he bought me a fish tank and told me to use my imagination.)

But now, apparently, I'm even grounded from using my imagination. I am not going to be able to make it past 5 o'clock this evening, much less for two whole months.

I sighed dejectedly and collapsed on my bed. Boring though they may be, Mom and Dad's worst punishments were a thousand times better than having to obey Eggman. And I sort of…found my way 'around' them, anyway.

The door to my room opened a smidge and a small, "Chao!" could be heard.

"Brisa!" I said in a hurried whisper. "Did you get it, girl?"

My Chao flew into the room, proudly displaying a Nintendo DS, complete with game cartridge.

"Alright!" I said, grabbing the system. "Good partner in crime," I complimented her, patting her on the head. Brisa cooed and the ball on the top of her head became a heart. Brisa was just about ready to evolve; and while none of us knew just what kind of Chao she would evolve into, Dad assured me of two things: She would always be a Neutral version of a Chao, because the top of her head remained a smooth ball; and two: whatever type of Neutral Chao she became, she would still love me just as much as she did now.

She should make a cocoon any day now; but in the meantime she made an excellent little lackey for my criminal ambitions.

OK, maybe not criminal per say, but definitely not condoned.

Twenty minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door. I swiftly hid my DS under my pillow and called, "Come in!"

Dad peeked his head into my room. "Hey, bud," he greeted. "Me an' Ames are going—"

"On a date!" Mom squealed, throwing the door open wide with a look of pure bliss on her face. She clasped her hands and sighed dreamily. "A date, just for the two of us."

Dad gave Mom a strange look. "Since when is going to the grocery store a date?" he asked.

"Since I am with you, Sonic," Mom sighed again, a faraway look in her eyes.

Dad and I exchanged worried glances, both wondering what we'd do if Mom finally flipped her lid. Finally, Dad cleared his throat and said, "Um, I'll be back in thirty minutes or so; Ames is headed back to her place as soon as we're done. Oh, and I'll—" there was a whoosh and a flash of blue, then Dad reappeared next to me with my DS in his hands. Busted. "—Take this with me," Dad finished, pocketing my DS. "And since you've obviously got enough time to waste playing video games, then I'm sure you won't mind some extra chores for the next few weeks."

I groaned loudly as Dad smirked at me and left my room with Mom. I sighed and laid my head on my pillow. With nothing else to do, I just stared at the ceiling until I went to sleep.

A loud noise woke me. I blinked slowly and looked around. "Mom? Dad? You home?" I called, yawning and sitting up in my bed.

A loud explosion was my answer, and the door to my room burst inward. I yelped in shock and rolled out of my bed into the floor. "What in the…"

I gasped in horror at a SWATbot who was waltzing into my room as if it was his perfect right to be here. It started scanning the room, then stopped as it came to me.

"Target found," it droned. "Relaying message."

Its TV turned on and I glared at the face of the man whom I loathed with a passion bordering obsession. "Eggman," I snarled.

"Metal Sonic," my former master said smugly. "You've grown since I last saw you."

"You'll be sorry when my parents get home!" I spat at him.

"Parents?" Eggman cocked his head. "Ah, you wouldn't happen to be referring to those two annoying hedgehogs, are you? These two, by any chance?"

The screen changed and I gasped in shock as I saw my Mom and Dad. Their eyes were closed and they seemed to be unconscious, although they didn't seem hurt.

"What did you do to them, Eggman!?" I yelled as the screen went back to the deranged professor.

"Nothing, yet," Eggman replied. "But that could change."

I felt my quills rile up with displeasure. "What do you want?"

"The seven chaos emeralds," Eggman replied. "Or I'll dispose of them both now if you wish."

"If you touch them I swear I'll—"

"So we have a deal?"

I glared at him a little longer, then I sighed and slumped. "Deal," I finally muttered.

"Excellent." The television clicked off and the SWATbot left.

"Crud!" I yelled at the hole in the wall where my door used to be. Then I turned and started to look for Brisa. "Brisa, where'd Dad stash that—"

I stopped when I saw Brisa's cocoon. She's evolving. Of all the rotten, lousy times to form your cocoon…

"Forget it, I'll find it myself," I muttered. "ZOMBIE!"

I rushed out of the room looking for Dad's freaky little Chao, knowing that he'd know where dad had hidden the emerald he always kept with him.

I finally found Zombie in the kitchen behind the microwave. The Chao was just waking up and was stumbling around, a rather large lump on his forehead.

"Zombie," I called, grabbing the woozy Chao. "Eggman kidnapped Mom and Dad and I need Dad's Chaos Emerald to get them back. Do you know where it is?"

Zombie blinked, focused in on me, and nodded quickly. Then he turned and flew into Dad's room. He came out…with the miniature banjo Dad had made for him.

"Uh…Zombie?" I asked. "I need an emerald, not a banjo."

Zombie grinned at me, broke the handle on his banjo, yanked off the strings of the instrument and handed me what was left.

"What the…" I gently took the white Chaos Emerald. "Dad used the Emerald to make you a banjo!?"

Zombie nodded, and I giggled. That did sound like something Dad would do.

"You'd better get that head of yours checked out," I said. Zombie had been whopped pretty hard; so hard in fact, that he wasn't turning into a werechao with the knowledge that Dad had been kidnapped. The Chao gave me a goofy grin and saluted, then he passed out again.

I took the emerald and rushed out of my house and into my front lawn, where I practically ran head-first into Andy, who was holding his dad's red emerald.

"OW!" I yelled, falling on my butt as Andy fell on his. "Andy, what are you doing here?"

"Eggman kidnapped Father and he's shut down Omega somehow, and I have to get him the Chaos Emeralds. I only have the one Father keeps to help him Chaos Control. I came here to see if Sonic still had that white emerald that he got when we were watching him."

"Yes," I said. "He used it to make Zombie a banjo."

Andy stared at me. "That's sick," he finally admitted.

"It is not!" I said defensively. "And anyway, Eggman kidnapped my mom and dad, too. So I'll help you get the Emeralds."

Andy closed his eyes. "I can't believe we're helping Eggman get the Chaos Emeralds."

"We aren't," I replied. "We're taking them to our parents. Knowing Eggman, he's such an idiot he'll take them to the place where he wants us to rendezvous. Then, with the Chaos Emeralds so close, our Dads will go super and kick his butt."

"Hey guys! What 'cha doin'?"

Andy and I gaped at each other and twirled around to see Steven waving at us as he sprinted across my lawn.

"Steven?" Andy said incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"Stevie Joe," the echidna said with a wicked grin. "Knuckles isn't here. Anyway, me an' Knuckles came to Westopolis because he wanted to talk to Sonic about something. I don't know what about; he was yelling too loudly for me to catch everything. Only that he'd uncovered proof of misusing a Chaos Emerald, or something."

"You mean like turning an emerald into a banjo?" Andy asked, sounding amused.

"Yeah!" Stevie Joe looked excited. "That's exactly what he said!"

"I hate you both," I muttered. "Where is Knuckles, Stevie Joe?"

"He's at your house," Stevie Joe said matter-of-factly. "He left me at the Chaotix's place and came over here about…a long time ago." Stevie Joe shrugged and said, "Vector told me that Knuckles wanted me to go here right now a few minutes ago. I wonder how he knew…"

Meanwhile, Chaotix Headquarters…

Vector was on his knees sobbing wildly as he tried to salvage what he could of his important documents. Only a few had survived the fire started when Stevie Joe had stared at them with a magnifying glass and held them up to the window. Those who had survived, had been colored on with permanent marker, the same marker used to draw pictures of Stevie Joe and Knuckles guarding the Master Emerald all over the wall. Worse, he'd found a 100,000 dollar check from the Chaotix's last job and had made paper dolls with it, tearing it to shreds and not even making very good dolls.

Even Charmy hadn't been able to stand the little echidna, and had rushed off to cower in terror after Stevie Joe had found a Caprisun packet and set out to see if bad things really did happen if you disrespect the pouch. He'd blown the empty Caprisun packet up, put the straw in, and stomped on it.

Apparently, bad things do indeed happen, at least to Charmy, who was hit in the eye with a flying Caprisun straw.

Now, Espio surveyed the chaos and destruction left in Stevie Joe's wake and whistled. "And I thought Charmy was bad," he mused.

And now back to our original scheduled program…

"Stevie Joe, Knuckles hasn't shown up here all day," I told the echidna.

Stevie Joe's eyes widened in shock. "But…but he said…he always does what he says he's gonna do! Why wouldn't he come here?"

Our answer came forthwith as a SWATbot landed in front of us and scanned Stevie Joe. Eggman appeared on its view screen.

"Ah, Robo Knuckles, so good to see you again," Eggman said. "I…is that Metal Sonic and Shadow Android?"

The mad scientist seemed stunned to see us, I rolled my eyes and snapped, "What, did you kidnap Knuckles too?"

"Well…yeah…" Eggman admitted.

"And I suppose you want Stevie Joe to bring you the seven emeralds?" Andy continued.

"Hey, it never hurts to have a few backup plans," Eggman said defensively. Then he cleared his throat and turned to Stevie Joe. "Robo Knuckles, the emeralds for the elder Echidna. Do we have a bargain?"

Stevie Joe bit his lower lip, in deep reflection. Finally he blurted out, "What's with that mustache?"

"What?" Eggman asked, startled.

Not caring that his train of thought had no relevance to the present situation, Stevie Joe continued, "It looks like a wooly worm is imbedded in your upper lip."

"I…It does not!" Eggman yelled, his face turning a deep magenta.

"He accepts," I told Eggman.

"Oh. Well, in that case…see you when you've gotten my Emeralds," Eggman said pleasantly, as the SWATbot left.

Andy, Stevie Joe and I looked at each other, each knowing what we had to do.

It was time to go Emerald hunting.


	12. Chapter 12

"Is this a good idea?" Andy whispered to me as we staked out our target.

"Um…define 'good idea'," I told him.

"Is it legal?" he defined for me.

"No, this is not a good idea," I said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"What are we doing at Rouge's house again?" Stevie Joe asked even though I'd told him what we were doing here five times already.

But, his frustrating forgetfulness and lack of attention span is part of the reason we like him.

"We are at Rouge's house because she has two Chaos emeralds, and we need them," I told him.

"Oh," Stevie Joe blinked. "How are we gonna get past the security alarm?"

"That is what we were trying to figure out," I explained.

"Oh," Stevie Joe said again. After a few seconds, he said, "I bet I could break it."

Andy snickered. "Oh, I'd love to see you try," he said.

"OK." Stevie Joe took off across Rouge's lawn at a flat-out run. About half way to the door he jumped up and put his hands out in front of him. He started to glide. That gave him enough height to reach the security alarm, which he smashed as easily as I could snap a toothpick.

He landed and gave us a cheeky grin.

"How did you…"

"What? All Echidnas can do that," Stevie Joe said proudly. "Knuckles showed me. And when I'm all grown up, I'll be able to fly higher and longer, and I'll be nearly three times as strong as I am now."

Well, this was an interesting tidbit of information, but we had a robbery to commit. Andy and I picked our jaws off of the ground and rushed over to where Stevie Joe was holding the door open.

"After you," he told us, waving us in.

"Show off," Andy muttered, walking into the darkened house.

We had to be quiet, because Rouge was sleeping upstairs. Now, it's been awhile since I was at Rouge's house, but she usually kept all her jewels in a large museum-like room on the first floor. We just had to sneak across the house, grab the emeralds, and leave before Rouge found out we were here.

That plan worked partially, as we did get to the Emeralds, collect them, and started back out the door. Then, things went haywire as I heard a horrendous crash and Stevie Joe yelp in agony, snarling some phrases that both sounded like something Knuckles would say and something that the Echidna really had no business repeating to his kid.

"Freaking, no good coffee table!" Stevie Joe snapped. "Why don't 'cha jump out in front of me and stub my doggone foot, you bull crap worth of a cruddy table!"

"Shh!" Andy whispered. "You're going to give us away!"

Too late, because the lights came on and Rouge the bat peered down at us from the top of her stairs. She extended her wings and glided down to us easily.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Rouge asked, grabbing Andy's shoulder and inspecting the emerald nestled in his hands. "Little boys like you have no business trying to play thief. I think I might have to teach you a few manners."

She probably meant she was going to call either the cops or our parents, or both. But one can never be too sure with Rouge. We were all slightly panicked, but Andy was panicked the worst, because he was the one she was actually holding.

"Help!" Andy shrieked. "She's gonna eat me! I wish Father was here to Chaos Control—"

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the blue emerald he was holding flashed brightly and he disappeared.

"What the…"

That was as far as Rouge got as Andy reappeared next to me and Stevie Joe. His eyes were huge.

"I can…I just…this is SO COOL!" he said, still a little freaked by the whole ordeal. "Quick, grab me, guys."

Stevie Joe and I quickly grabbed is arms, and Andy put his hands on top of the Emerald.

"Chaos Control!" he yelled, and a flash of light surrounded us. I suddenly felt like I was moving, and then it was over.

And we were ten feet off the ground over the Westopolis public swimming pool.

"Oh, crud," I muttered as we fell. It was early spring, so the water was stale and cold.

"OH, GEEZ, I'M TURNING INTO AN ECHIDNA-SICKLE!" Stevie Joe yelped, grabbing the side of the pool and pushing himself out. Andy and I were right on his heels, scrambling out of the cold water and shivering in miserable little heaps by the side.

"W-w-well, at least we got two more emeralds," I said, looking on the bright side. "That means we now have four of them."

"Five," Stevie Joe corrected, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a cloth. He opened it to reveal the green emerald. "I found it on Angel Island," he explained, looking at it fondly. "I like to pretend it's a little Master Emerald for me to protect."

Andy and I gave each other stunned looks. We were both thinking the same thing. Stevie Joe is pretending to protect something? It didn't seem possible.

And yet he was, and seemed quite adamant about it, too. The echidna gently rewrapped the emerald in his cloth and carefully put it back in his pocket. I had never seen him be so careful and thorough with anything ever before, not even when he'd just been created and didn't have all those personality glitches.

Once he was reasonably sure that the green Chaos Emerald was safe and well protected in his pocket, he looked up at us with a big, cheesy grin. "How now, brown cow?" he asked.

Andy and I breathed a sigh of relief; seeing Stevie Joe behave so…responsibly was rather disturbing. We were both glad to see him acting more or less like his regular, immature self.

"We still have to find two more Chaos emeralds," I said. "We're missing the purple and light blue gems."

"I know where the purple one is," Any said. We all knew, and we were not looking forward to this. It was a well-known fact that Miles Prower kept the purple emerald to study and also to power equipment.

Right now, Uncle Tails was out of the state testing a new engine he'd put on the Tornado III. That meant we'd have to break in to his house and take his emerald.

We were going to have to steal from the first living creature who had ever shown us kindness. And we were not looking forward to it.

"We'll give it right back, right?" Andy asked me as we stared at Uncle Tails' house.

I nodded. "The instant we get our parents back. Maybe he won't even know we took it."

"We'll know," Stevie Joe said sadly. Andy and I gave each other worried looks. Here was another instance of Stevie Joe's new sense of maturity and purpose. Just what was Knuckles teaching him on that Island, anyway? How was Knuckles teaching him, period?

Not that I'm complaining. I'd been trying to get Stevie Joe to act mature for my entire life. I admit, I am a touch jealous that Knuckles managed to accomplish a life time goal for me in four short years, but I digress.

We carefully sneaked to the door, thankful that Uncle Tails didn't invest in security alarms or locks. He had no reason to; the only person who ever broke in was Big the Cat, and Big didn't worry about the alarms and simply broke down locked doors. So it was pretty much a waste of time and money, as far as Uncle Tails was concerned.

I gently opened the unlocked doors and walked over to Uncle Tails' workstation. The purple emerald was on it, hooked up to a power meter by a good many wires. I carefully disconnected the wires, making sure I didn't break any, and gently picked up the emerald. I'm really a very considerate burglar.

Then, prize in hand, I took the purple emerald and the three of us left Uncle Tails' house, all of us feeling lower than dirt and silently vowing to return the Emerald the instant we had our parents back.

It wasn't so bad for me, personally, taking the white Emerald, because Dad had given it to Zombie and Zombie had given it to me. And the Green Emerald belonged to Stevie Joe. Andy had eased his conscience over taking the Red Emerald by thinking that he was simply returning it to Shadow, the rightful owner. And since Rouge had probably stolen her two emeralds and none of us liked her much anyway, none of us were going to lose much sleep over taking hers.

But even though we all thought Uncle Tails would be more than willing to give us the purple emerald had he known the situation, he hadn't given it to us. We had broken into his house and simply took it.

And no amount of explaining it away to necessity could convince my conscience that I had not done something horribly wrong.

The light blue emerald was all that was left. And it didn't belong to anyone as of yet; we would have to find it.

I was using the white emerald as a tracker. We had determined that it was somewhere in Green Hill Zone: Andy had Chaos Controlled us there. And luckily, this time we landed on solid ground.

I saw the white Emerald glowing wildly; the last emerald was near here. "Look!" I said, seeing a flash of light atop a large mountain.

"I see it," Andy said. There was a whoosh of wind and in a second, Andy had the light blue emerald in his hands. "What?" he asked at our stunned looks.

"You realize you just ran up a mountain and back in a few seconds?" I asked.

Andy's eyes widened, then he grinned. "I guess I did," he said, sounding pleased. "I've never ran anywhere near that fast before!"

"We have all seven emeralds," I said. "Now let's go give them to our parents."

With that, Andy Chaos Controlled us to the rendezvous point.

"Eggman!" I called when we appeared at his base. "We've got the emeralds! Now let our parents go!"

The doors to his base opened, but there was nobody there. We gave each other worried looks and nervously stepped inside. The doors slammed shut with a bang behind us.

A large TV turned on above our heads, and Eggman's face appeared on it.

"So, you've gotten my emeralds, have you?" he asked.

"Where's our parents?"

"Why, they're right there with you," Eggman replied, pushing a button. A light on the far end of the wall turned on, and we gasped as we saw Mom, Dad, Shadow, and Knuckles, still lying unconscious inside large metal cages.

Stevie Joe leaned close to me and whispered, "Um, if they're unconscious, how are they gonna use the emeralds to go super?"

I didn't answer him. It was obvious that my previous plan had hit a large snag.

"Let them go, Eggman!" I yelled.

"Why would I do that?" Eggman asked. "This way, I get rid of those annoying pests, I get all seven Chaos Emeralds, and I finally get to study you three and figure out how to build a machine that will turn organics into my robotic slaves!"

With that, he snapped his fingers, and hundreds of SWATbots appeared out of nowhere.

"Kill Sonic the Hedgehog and his annoying friends," Eggman ordered. "But bring the children and the emeralds to me."

"Affirmative, Doctor," said a SWATbot across the room, and his arm turned into an Ion cannon which he pointed at Dad.

I felt the most terrific anger I'd ever known flare up in me. "YOU LEAVE MY PARENTS ALONE!" I screamed.

The next thing I knew, I was right next to a smoldering heap of SWATbot ruins.

I blinked, confused, and looked at my friends. Andy looked shocked, but Stevie Joe was grinning ear to ear.

"COOL!" he yelled. "Nick, you just ran across the base at like, mach 2, pulled out your Piko Piko hammer out of nowhere, and totally smashed that SWATbot to bits!"

I looked down. Sure enough, I was holding my blue Piko Piko hammer. Then I grinned. "Let's trash these bots!" I yelled.

Andy cheered. "Chaos Spears!" he cried, and two energy beams appeared. They were much like Shadow's only Andy's were a yellowish/orange color and were much smaller. But the damage they did to a SWATbot after you impaled them with it was exactly the same.

I took off across the room. I found that if I held my Piko Piko hammer out and went into a spin dash, it made for some totally awesome SWATbot smashing.

Stevie Joe glided over to a SWATbot and punched his arm right through the machine's mid torso.

Soon enough, all the SWATbots were scrap metal. I was out of breath, Andy and Stevie Joe looked tired too. But what surprised me was Eggman clapping with amusement from his TV thing.

"Not bad, Metal Sonic," he said approvingly. "But you didn't think I spent four years sitting on my butt and moping, did you?"

A door on the far end of the room opened and something that I couldn't quite make out walked out. It looked like a twisted, deformed version of Tails. Its eyes were large and black, and its head, arms, and legs seemed to be stuffed too big for its body. It slouched limply, as if it was struggling just to hold up its own weight. It was about as tall as I was. There was a large, red crystal on its forehead.

"What is that thing?" Andy asked.

"Boys, allow me to introduce you to my newest creation," Eggman said, practically purring. "Meet Tails Doll."

Suddenly, the thing's head shot up and it looked right at us. The crystal on top of its head started to glow and suddenly I found it very hard to focus.

"Give me your emeralds," Tails Doll said in a deep, mellow voice. I quickly reached for the emeralds in my possession, almost against my will. It was like I had to do what it asked. I saw Andy do the same with his own emeralds out of the corner of my eye.

Stevie Joe seemed to hesitate. Tails Doll looked directly at him and hissed, "GIVE ME YOUR EMERALDS!"

Slowly, Stevie Joe took out his Green Emerald. He couldn't fight it, either. I felt so tired; I wanted to close my eyes and go to sleep.

When all seven emeralds came together, they started to float.

"What the…" Eggman gasped from his TV. "How are the Emeralds reacting? There's no one here who's capable of activating them! Never mind," he seemed to reassure himself. "The crystal I put on Tails Doll's head will even control those in Super form. No organic life form can possibly resist its power."

The Emeralds sparked and I felt a tremendous surge of energy. All of a sudden I was wide awake. And is Tails Doll shorter?

Confused, I looked at my friends. Instead of seeing Andy and Stevie Joe, I came face to face with Shadow Android and Robo Knuckles!

Now extremely lost, I glanced at my own hands. Metallic. Apparently, instead of going into Super form, my friends and I became robots again. I am, once again, Metal Sonic.

And I am going to need some serious therapy when this is over.


	13. Chapter 13

Tails Doll seemed to stare at us and the crystal upon his head flashed. I cocked my head, hoping I was conveying the expression of smirking, since I didn't have a mouth.

"Looks like that Crystal of yours doesn't work on robots," I said.

"Pity," Shadow Android finished, powering up his ion cannons. That really was the only good thing about being a robot; we had awesome weapons.

"Gee, you're kinda cute when you're not forcing me to hand you my Emeralds," Robo Knuckles said, sounding amused.

"Robo Knuckles, don't ever change," I ordered him, turning my own weapons on Tails Doll.

To our surprise, Tails Doll laughed.

"Please," he said, his voice heavy with disdain. "You think you are the only ones I was controlling? I control all organics. Even them," he nodded to our parents, and his crystal flashed again. "Get up," he said. "Protect me."

I gasped as Mom and Dad's eyes opened, but they both seemed different. Their eyes were dull and lifeless compared to how they normally were. Dad spin dashed the cage they were in, breaking it effortlessly and they climbed out, standing between me and Tails Doll. Mom brought forth her Piko Piko Hammer and Dad struck a fighter's stance, both protecting Tails Doll and getting ready to fight me.

Out of the corner of my optics sensors, I could see Shadow doing the same with Shadow Android and Knuckles preparing to battle Robo Knuckles.

I don't know what to do! I can't hurt my parents, and Tails Doll is obviously controlling their minds with that crystal atop his head—but I can't destroy that crystal without hurting my parents!

Tails Doll laughed again, a chilly, eerie sound. "Destroy them all!" he said, his crystal flashing once more.

Dad curled up in a ball and tried to spin dash me. I effortlessly dodged him, simultaneously bringing out a metallic Piko Piko hammer that I used to block Mom's.

Wait. Metallic Piko Piko hammer? I don't have a metallic Piko Piko hammer! Well, I suppose that's not true now. I wonder what other new abilities I have obtained.

We continued to spar, Mom and Dad trying to destroy me and I desperately trying to think of ways that I could stop them without hurting them.

But it wasn't working, and I was feeling devastated. Even if I used my entire arsenal on them, I had never been able to defeat Dad. He was always too strong for me, even when I tried my hardest…

Dad tried to spin dash me again, and without thinking I flew over it, grabbed his shoe, bringing him out of his spin, and swung him around, tossing him towards the wall. Dad flipped in mid air and landed on his feet gracefully.

"You!" I yelled at Tails Doll as I dodged Dad's super fast punches and flew out of reach of Mom's Piko Piko hammer. "You kidnapped my parents—" I grabbed Mom's Piko Piko hammer right out of her hands and broke it like a twig. "—You want to kill everyone I care about—" I brought my knee into Dad's midsection, being careful just to knock the wind out of him so he wouldn't be attacking me again anytime soon. "—And you turned my own family against me!"

Tails Doll realized that Dad and Mom were no longer stopping me and he turned to Shadow and Knuckles. "Destroy him!" he shrieked. "Protect me!"

Shadow broke from his attack and turned to Tails Doll. The distraction gave Shadow Android enough time to fire a stun cannon—we used to use it all the time to kidnap Mom back before this whole mess started. Shadow gave a muffled cry and collapsed, not seriously hurt, but definitely unconscious.

Knuckles was also pulling back from his attacks on Robo Knuckles. Robo Knuckles pressed this new advantage with a ferocity I'd never seen him use and he whacked Knuckles upside the head with the flat of his metal hand. It was more than enough to knock the echidna out.

"That's for all those stupid lectures!" Robo Knuckles snapped, then he quickly dived to catch Knuckles before the echidna hit the ground. Robo Knuckles cradled the elder echidna carefully. "And this is for those awesome bedtime stories about echidna history," he muttered, holding the unconscious guardian close to his body, as if to ward off any potential threats. He looked up at me. "Get him, Metal Sonic!" he ordered, pointing at Tails Doll.

"Robo Knuckles and I will get our parents to safety," Shadow Android replied, gently picking up Shadow with one hand and a struggling Mom with the other.

Shadow Android was well used to carting off my struggling mother; she gave him no real trouble. Robo Knuckles followed him out, still holding onto Knuckles protectively.

Geez, what did Knuckles do to that machine to make him focus like that?! And could he teach me to do it?

I turned back to Tails Doll, who seemed to be cowering in a corner. I couldn't help but laugh. "So, without your organic slaves you're really just a pathetic little rag doll," I sneered.

Tails Doll suddenly stood up and gave me a chilling glare. "Fool." he hissed, and something hit me hard against my back, knocking me away from Tails Doll and against the wall.

Ow…a minor damage alert showed up in my internal warning unit, and I looked up to see what had hit me.

Dad. Standing in a traditional fighter's pose.

Looks like I would have to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog after all.

It was so strange. Dad wasn't giving me any of his usual taunts, there was no familiar smirk, nothing. He just stared at me with those dull, empty green eyes, so devoid of the happiness and carefree persona that defined who he was.

I shuddered when I looked into his eyes, they could not be my Dad's eyes—and yet everything else about him was so much like Dad that the thought of harming him, even to save him, was unbearable.

It was as if I had been yanked into a horrible nightmare and there was no escape. This was not my Dad. And I was no longer Nick. I had been thrown for a loop and once again, we were simply Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic, fighting to destroy each other. It was as if we were doomed to do nothing else, to be nothing else, for all eternity, no matter how hard we tried to change the hand that fate had dealt us.

So be it.

I brought forth my metallic Piko Piko Hammer and zoomed forward on my rocket boosters, swinging at Sonic the Hedgehog, hoping to knock him out of the way so I could get to the real villain here, Tails Doll. But Sonic was as fast as I remembered; he zoomed out of the way and started his homing attack on me.

I brought my arms together and put up an Ion field; Sonic bounced off of it like rubber. The Ion field saved my hull from damage; but the attack had spiked it and now it was useless. I would not be able to use the field again.

I dropped my hammer; strength was good for a surprise attack; but not as a recurring attack. Sonic was so fast that if I relied on the hammer, he would simply work his way around it. My only hope was to be as fast as he was; and the hammer would slow me down.

Sonic and I glared at each other for a long moment, his dull green eyes peering into my haunting, mechanical red-on-black ones. Then we charged each other and the fighting began in earnest.

How long have we been fighting? I can't remember. It seems like forever. Maybe it has been. I don't care anymore. I only know that I am losing. I always knew I would, of course; I never could beat Sonic.

My hull was badly damaged; a long rip from one of his spin dashes aligned my chest. My right arm was useless; my rocket boosters were strained to the point of breaking with all the exertion I had forced upon them. Sonic was looking a bit the worse for wear; as well, he had several impressive bruises on his body and seemed to be breathing heavier than normal.

The worst part is, I know he's not trying his hardest. He's toying with me. He's not even fighting as hard as he usually does. He seems…so…controlled…

Well, duh! He IS controlled! No wonder he's not fighting like he usually does. And that's why…

All of a sudden I realized why I've never beaten Sonic before, even though I am physically better than him in every way. It was because he had one thing that I never did. And now, it was something that I had and he didn't. The reason he always beat me. And now, it would be the one chance that I had to beat him.

A reason to fight.

A real reason, not some vague directive to kill the hedgehog, a directive that I had not given myself nor ever really believed in. Sonic the Hedgehog always beat me because he believed in what he was fighting me for. So he pushed himself beyond what should have been his limits; fought when he should have given up and died; won when winning was thought to be impossible.

Now, Sonic the Hedgehog fought me for the same reason I had always fought him: Somebody who he didn't really like was making him do it. The drive, the fury that I had come to associate with Sonic's fighting style was gone.

Or rather, it had gone to someone else who now had a reason to fight.

"You will not beat me," I muttered, just barely enough for him to hear. "I will not let you!"

I brought my knee up and hit Sonic just under his chin, and he stumbled backwards a few paces, turning to stare at me with those dull green eyes.

Why?

I had this question every time I had ever fought Sonic; usually when we were both at the point of exhaustion and kept going.

Why am I doing this?

Usually the best I could give were half-answers;

Eggman told me to.

Because I hate him.

That's just the way it is.

I have no choice.

These answers seemed to sap my will to fight; he would then deliver a finishing blow.

This time, I have better answers. Real answers.

So I can rip Tails Doll's head off and yank all the stuffing out of the little demon.

So I can protect my family, and my friend's families.

So that I can see Sonic's eyes as they should be; happy and full of life, instead of dull and emotionless.

So I can save my Dad.

And with each answer, I became more animated, more determined than ever to do what I needed to do to win. I had to save Sonic from Tails Doll. EVERYTHING that was important to me depended on winning this fight.

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY DADDY AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed, as my chest plate opened up. A large cannon that I rarely used because it literally drained my operating energy appeared and I aimed it at Tails Doll. He started this; and I was going to destroy him, even if it meant I had to go down with him.

"NO!" Tails Doll shrieked, trying in vain to shield himself as I shot him with every ounce of force that I had in my metal body. After awhile, the intense energy disintegrated him into nothing.

I had done it. I had won. The cannon went back into my chest and I collapsed to my knees, completely and utterly exhausted.

Someone gently took me by the shoulder and leaned my metallic body against him. I wearily looked up and saw Sonic the Hedgehog looking down at me.

"Nick," Sonic whispered. "Nick, I'm so, so sorry."

"'M not Nick anymore," I managed to say, my voice chip slurring. "Metal Sonic…'member?"

Sonic gently touched my cheek. "You are Nick," he said, hugging me tightly. "No matter what you look like, you're still my little boy."

"Thank you…Dad…" I felt immensely tired; I was vaguely aware of the Chaos Emeralds scattering, and then I lost consciousness.

Sonic the Hedgehog looked in wonderment as Nick's metallic hull started to soften and he started to shrink in size. In a matter of minutes he was the six-year-old organic hedgehog that Sonic had come to love as his son once again.

And perhaps even more amazing, none of the injuries inflicted on Metal Sonic seemed to transfer to Nick. That was a blessing that did little to ease Sonic's pain; he had been fully aware of everything when he was under Tails Doll's control; he had literally been forced to watch himself try to kill his own son, and hadn't been able to do anything to stop himself.

"Sonic!"

Sonic looked up wearily as Amy Rose rushed back into the now-abandoned base, ran over to them, and collapsed to her knees, leaning over to inspect Nick.

"Is he…"

"He's fine," Sonic said tiredly. "Just exhausted."

Amy sobbed with relief and held her child's head, finally allowing all her pent up emotions and fears rush to the surface.

Later…

I opened my eyes in my room, my wonderful, wonderful room. And to make it even more wonderful…

"Dad!" I squealed, grabbing my Dad's neck and hugging him tight. Dad looked at me and for a second I was afraid Tails Doll was still controlling him—his eyes still seemed dull.

"Dad?" I asked, worried.

"Nick," he whispered, looking afraid to touch me. "Nick, I didn't mean…I tried to fight it, Nick, I tried so hard. I…I wasn't strong enough. I…"

I put my finger to my mouth and said, "It's OK, Dad, really." I snuggled closer to him. "It wasn't your fault."

Cautiously at first, Dad returned my hug. "I love you, Nick," he whispered fiercely. "Don't ever forget that."

"I won't, Dad," I replied. "I love you, too."

Then Dad whispered in my ear, "By the way, you're still grounded."

"I am?" I asked, moaning.

Dad nodded. "Sorry bud. That's the way I system works, you know."

I sighed. "I know."

"I see Brisa's evolving," Dad continued, changing the subject.

"Yeah!" I brightened. "How long until she comes out of the cocoon?"

"Looks like she's coming out now," Dad replied, nodding to where I'd stashed Brisa. I eagerly watched as the cocoon cracked open and Brisa poked her head out. She was black now with red stripes and she looked like…

"A SHADOW CHAO!?" Dad shrieked. "Brisa, you TRAITOR!"

Then he took out his vengeance by tickling me until I couldn't breathe properly, Brisa cooing by my side, not at all ashamed that she had the gall to evolve into a Neutral Shadow Chao.

"You're packing?" Andy asked Shadow as he saw his father take a suitcase out of the closet. "Where does GUN want you to go this time, Father?"

"GUN hasn't sent me anywhere," Shadow replied.

"Then are we remodeling?" Andy asked.

"No."

"Then why are you getting the suitcase?"

Shadow leaned down and placed his hand on his son's shoulder. "You're growing up fast," he said, almost to himself. "And I want to be there for as much of it as possible."

"Father?" Andy asked, not understanding.

Although Shadow would never admit it to anyone, especially not Andy, the encounter with Tails Doll had shaken him to his core. The ease that Andy had handled himself in the battle, had shown him that Andy was, in fact, growing up much faster than he'd realized.

And he was determined not to miss any more of Andy's childhood if he could help it.

"I have some vacation time," Shadow replied. "So I decided to take it. We're going on a two-week camping trip. Just you and me."

"Really?" Andy asked, his eyes going wild. "What about school?"

"What about it?" Shadow asked, crossing his arms.

"ALRIGHT!" Andy cheered. Two weeks with his father, and no school. The best idea EVER.

"I am proud of you, Steven," Knuckles said approvingly as he and Steven walked across Angel Island to check on the Master Emerald. "You fought well, and you behaved admirably. You will make an excellent guardian."

Steven gave Knuckles a happy smile. "I even came back and checked on the Master Emerald to make sure it was OK," he said proudly.

Knuckles gave Steven a rare approving smile. He rubbed Steven's head as they walked into the cave of the Master Emerald.

Knuckles froze, his eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped.

The Master Emerald was right where it should be. Only someone had taken a permanent marker and written, 'Stevie Joe wuz here' on it.

Knuckles' eyes narrowed and he glared at Steven. Steven's sixth sense told him that he'd better go work on his running muscles, and he shot out of the cave before Knuckles could grab him.

All across Angel Island, the angry voice of Knuckles the Echidna could be heard yelling, "STEVEN JOSEPH ECHIDNA! YOU WROTE ON THE MASTER EMERALD WITH A PERMANENT MARKER?! WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET A PERMANENT MARKER ON THIS ISLAND!?"

Meanwhile, at the Chaotix HQ, Vector was pawing through his desk. "That little twerp!" he yelled. "He stole my permanent marker!"

* * *

Tloj: And that's it. These stories are all that I could put back together. Now it's time for you guys, the Starvix fans, to do your part. If you have a personal copy of one of Starvix's old stories (From her profile, not the co-op stories posted on other peoples' accounts) then please, either PM it to me to continue the storyline, or post it yourself and let me know, so that I can find it.


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